Charles Grattan Price Jr. and Don W. Thomas collection on the Chesapeake Western Railway

Access and use

Location of collection:
James Madison University
Second Floor Room 203, MSC 1704
Carrier Library
James Madison University
880 Madison Drive
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Tiffany Cole
Phone: (540) 568-3444
Phone: (540) 568-3612
Fax: (540) 568-3405
Restrictions:

Collection is open for research. Researchers must register and agree to copyright and privacy laws before using this collection. Please contact Research Services staff before visiting the James Madison University Special Collections Library to use this collection.

Terms of access:

The copyright interests in this collection have not been transferred to the James Madison University Special Collections Library. For more information, contact the Special Collections Library Reference Desk (library-special@jmu.edu).

Preferred citation:

[identification of item], [box #, folder #], Charles Grattan Price Jr. and Don W. Thomas Collection on the Chesapeake Western Railway, 1872-1996, SC 0358, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.

Summary

Extent:
2.84 cubic feet 8 boxes and 23.9 Megabytes 1 digital file
Creator:
Price, Charles Grattan, III, Chesapeake Western Railway, Price, Charles Grattan, Jr., 1919-1996, and Thomas, Don W. (Don William), 1890-1962
Abstract:
The collection comprises photographs, maps, administrative files, and research materials related to the Chesapeake Western Railway. The materials in this collection were compiled by Don W. Thomas, former president and general manager of Chesapeake Western, and C. Grattan Price Jr., author of "The Crooked & Weedy": A History of Virginia's Chesapeake Western Railway.
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[identification of item], [box #, folder #], Charles Grattan Price Jr. and Don W. Thomas Collection on the Chesapeake Western Railway, 1872-1996, SC 0358, Special Collections, Carrier Library, James Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection comprises photographs and negatives, maps, annual reports, correspondence, administrative files, and research materials related to the Chesapeake Western Railway. The materials in this collection, which document the functions and activities of Chesapeake Western, were compiled by Don W. Thomas, former president and general manager of Chesapeake Western, and C. Grattan Price Jr., author of "The Crooked & Weedy": A History of Virginia's Chesapeake Western Railway.

The collection was created and used in large part to support Thomas and Price's research on the Chesapeake Western specifically and Virginia railroads generally. The culmination of that research is Price's book "The Crooked & Weedy": A History of Virginia's Chesapeake Western Railway (1992).

Series 1: Administrative files, 1893-1992, comprises materials that are official records created by or for Chesapeake Western Railway. The series includes correspondence, annual reports and other official reports, time tables, forms, tickets, passes, and ephemera, as well as a financial docket that documents the sale of Chesapeake Western Railway to Norfolk & Western Railway in July 1954.

Documents the sale of Chesapeake Western Railway to Norfolk & Western Railway in July 1954.

Documents the sale of Chesapeake Western Railway to Norfolk & Western Railway in July 1954.

Includes photographs.

Series 2: Research files, 1872-1996, includes newspaper clippings, articles, news story transcriptions, correspondence requesting research assistance, and assorted printed material related to Virginia railroad history and the Chesapeake Western Railway.

Wip Robinson's December 24, 1970 interview of Charles Grattan Price Sr. is included. The interview does not concern Chesapeake Western Railway.

C. Grattan Price Sr. reminisces about childhood Christmases and other early memories in Rockingham County in the late 19th century.

The content of the interview does not relate to the Chesapeake Western Railway.

Regarding the history of rail transportation in the Shenandoah Valley.

Concerns history of transportation in the Shenandoah Valley.

Includes transcribed newspaper articles and lists of instances railways were mentioned in newspapers.

Includes originals, transcripts, facsimiles, and photocopies.

Includes The Rockingham Recorder (Vol. I, No. 1-2); Railroads of the Shenandoah Valley, "The Old Church on the Hill", The Churches of Harrisonburg; and others.

The newspaper articles transcribed date to 1895. The transcripts themselves likely date to circa 1950s.

Four copies

Report & Documents Submitted by the Committee Appointed to Confer with the Authorities of the City of Wheeling, Respecting the Late Law of Virginia, Granting the Right of Way to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co. through that State. Passed 6th March, 1847

Series 3: Maps, 1894-1989, includes maps specific to Chesapeake Western Railway as well as maps of Virginia and West Virginia railway routes. Two 1894 linen-backed maps were created by cartographer Jedediah Hotchkiss of Staunton.

Map Showing Route of the Chesapeake Western Ry. to the Coal Fields of West Virginia via Pocohontas County and to the Tidewater Connection at Gordonsville, Virginia

Includes ten copies.

Norfolk and Western Railway Company; The New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad Company; Wabash Railroad Company; The Connecting Railway Company - Sandusky Line: Map Showing Lines of Railroad and Territory Involved

Series 4: Photographs, 1892-1992, comprises original photographs, facsimiles, negatives, and postcards that primarily document Chesapeake Western Railway. Photographs feature railroad workers including African American workers, construction, locomotives and equipment, train stations, and landscapes along the rail routes. Photographs also document damage to bridges and trestles as a result of flooding. There are a small number of non-Chesapeake Western Railway photographs and negatives included.

The bulk of the photographs were used in C. Grattan Price Jr.'s book The Crooked & Weedy and are organized according to book chapter. Original photographs used in the book have typed captions affixed to the back. Some are mounted on board. Facsimile photographs used in The Crooked & Weedy, which are also duplicates of the originals, are printed on photo paper and include publication specifications. The facsimile photographs are dated according to the approximate date of the content captured in the photograph not the date the facsimile was created (circa 1990). The date ranges were applied based on the captions accompanying the photographs.

The group of numbered photographs and negatives are identified and dated in an accompanying document of captions.

A group of photographs also document locations in West Virginia and western Virginia where Chesapeake Western planned to expand.

Photographers that are identified include H. Reid, C. Grattan Price Jr., and Walter S. Daggy.

From personal collections other than C. Grattan Price Jr.

Includes duplicates.

Bulk of photographs document a formal dinner party. Don W. Thomas is in attendance.

Includes duplicates.

Biographical / historical:

In 1892, a group of promoters including Jedediah Hotchkiss incorporated to build a railway to carry coal from West Virginia mines to Gloucester Point, Virginia. Initially called the Chesapeake, Shendun, and Western Railroad, the name was quickly changed to Chesapeake & Western Railroad. Using part of the old Washington, Cincinnati & St. Louis Railroad right-of-way, and with $150,000 from the city of Harrisonburg to ensure that the railroad would pass through it, a 26-mile single-track, standard-gauge line was completed from Elkton to Bridgewater and began operating on March 23, 1896. In the next few years, substantial Chesapeake & Western stock was purchased by New York investor Thomas Stokes, who hoped to develop the coal mines in western Rockingham County but became mired in financial difficulties. His brother, W.E.D Stokes, purchased control of the Chesapeake & Western and also organized a new railroad, the Tidewater and West Virginia, in 1900. The Tidewater changed its name in 1901 to the Chesapeake Western Railway, leased the Chesapeake Western line for 99 years, and in 1902 completed 13 miles of rail from Bridgewater to the new town of Stokesville in North River Gap. Trains carried passengers as well as freight between Elkton and Stokesville. Plans were drawn up to continue the line into West Virginia but were not implemented.

For just over a decade, Stokesville boomed as timber, tanbark, and to a much more limited extent, coal, in the area were exploited. Stokes operated the Chesapeake Western with offices in Harrisonburg until his death in 1926. His estate continued to operate the railway until 1938. In 1928, the line from Mount Solon to North River Gap was abandoned for financial reasons. In 1933, the nine miles from Bridgewater to Mount Solon were also dropped. When the Stokes' heirs put the Chesapeake Western up for sale in 1938, Donald W. Thomas (1890-1962), a former Norfolk & Western Railroad employee who had been the general manager of the railway since 1926, fought a bid from Japanese scrap metal buyers and bought the line. At this point Thomas became Chesapeake Western's president and general manager, positions he held until November 1954. In 1943, Thomas also bought the Baltimore & Ohio's Valley Road of Virginia line which ran between Harrisonburg and Lexington. The line south of Staunton was taken up and sold for scrap, but the road between Harrisonburg and Staunton was improved and became an important link in the Chesapeake Western system because of the connection with the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad at Staunton. The Chesapeake Western linked with the Norfolk & Western at Elkton.

In 1954, the Norfolk & Western Railroad purchased Chesapeake Western Railway, but the name was retained and was operated as a separate corporation. By about 1980, however, little or no rolling stock carried the CW logo any longer. Norfolk & Western and the Southern Railway Company merged as Norfolk Southern Corporation on June 1, 1982. Not long after that merger, a five-alarm fire burned the CW office located at Chesapeake Drive in Harrisonburg on July 28, 1982, and company offices and operations were eventually absorbed by the Norfolk Southern.

Charles Grattan Price Jr. (1919-1996), local railroad historian and enthusiast as well as a former employee of and photographer for Chesapeake Western Railway, authored "The Crooked & Weedy": A History of Virginia's Chesapeake Western Railway (1992). The title refers to Chesapeake Western's nickname - Crooked & Weedy - given to it by locals. The book is dedicated to Don W. Thomas who conducted much of the preliminary research into Virginia railroads. Thomas was unable to complete a written history himself due to an illness that culminated in blindness.

Melvin Sigafoose was an engineer for Chesapeake Western Railway.

Acquisition information:
The collection was donated to Special Collections in December 2019 by C. Grattan "Butch" Price III, son of C. Grattan Price Jr.
Processing information:

Materials were largely foldered and organized prior to being transferred to Special Collections. Those groupings and creator/donor provided descriptions were retained during processing.

Arrangement:

The collection is arranged into four series:

  1. Administrative files, 1893-1992
  2. Research files, 1872-1996
  3. Maps, 1894-1989
  4. Photographs, 1892-1992
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard