The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1891-08-22
BIG COAL LAND PURCHASERS.
The Davis and Camden System OF Rail.
roads Gobbling up West Virginia
Lands-A Through Line to
the SeabOard.

Those two gigantic railways, the
Davis Elkins and the Camden sys
tens, are quietly securing all of the
State of Virginia that is available,
and have made checker board of
the state with lines already con
structed or about to be. They pro-
pose to haul the underground wealth
of West Virginia both East and
West, and as they are looking this
way for an eastern outlet, their
movements are worth noting.
The Davis-Elkins syndicate has
had the West Virginia Central in OPP
Grafton with several smaller side is.
sues, and the Camden syndicate has
been operating the Ohio r. r., and
has been allied with the Baltimore Il
Ohio in the building of the Fairmont,
Morgantown and Pittsburg road. 1t
has also gotten to work on the Ra.
venswood, Spencer and Chenille, a
new line from the Ohio River road
at Ravenswood back into the inter
ior, and also upon the Huntington
and Big Sandy, which is to connect
the Ohio River road with the Norfolk
and Western at the south. Both
these railroad syndicates have been
aiming at the same thing, the devel-
opment of the almost UNEMPLOYED re-
gions of West Virginia, and the
opening up of coal lands along their
routes.
Some time since the West Virginia
Central people began systematic
effort to obtain possession of the
Chesapeake and Ohio Canal bed and
formed the Cumberland and Wash
ington Railroad Company, for the
purpose of converting the canal bed
from tide-water into a road bed.
This company primarily intended to
build road through the heart of
West Virginia, and had the plans
roughly drafted, but seeing no imme-
date competitor in the way, devoted
their attention TO the tide-water out
let almost exclusively.
While thus engaged the Camden
people formed an alliance with the
Baltimore q Ohio, which company en-
dorsed its bonds and built the Fair
mont, Morgantown d Pittsburg road
through what has since come to be
known as the Monongahela coal field
in Marion and Monongalia counties.
By other sharp moves the Camden
people got possession of the Davis
Elkins interest in the Caperton
boundaries and other large real es-
tate holdings in Nicholas and ad-
joining counties, thus shutting them
off from extending the West Vir-
ginia Central in that direction and
making it worth while to extend
their own road, now allied with the
Baltimore d Ohio, down the West
Fork and Kanawha Valleys.
The Davis Elkins syndicate, which
by the way, include some of the
weathiest men in the United States,
having finished their survey have
turned their attention to the interior
of the State. The plan is now form
ulated, and embraces one of the big
gest ventures in the way of railway
building and coal development
ever undertaken in that region. The
Southern terminus of the Davis Ell
kins system is now at the town of
Elkins, in Randolph county. From
Elkins the road will be extended to
Philippi, Barbour county, in a line
almost due north; thence it will fol-
low the Tygart's Valley river down
to Grafton, either paralleling the
Grafton and Greenbrier or purchas-
ing it; thence along the west bank
of the Tygart's Valley river to Fair
mont, short distance above which
place the West Fork river will be
bridged.
From Fairmont the road will he
built along the west bank of the
Monongahela and across the country
to point in the neighborhood Of
Fairchance, where it will connect
with thePennsylvania system and OBJ
tain direct outlet to Pittsburg. All
along this line the syndicate has
made extensive purchases of coal
lands, with the evident view of reap
| hot fa h<
derived by the railroads develop
ment. Some time since a syn
dictate including Messrs. Davis
and Elkins and other prominent
men, purchased large hodies of coal
land in Monongalia county, w. Va.
These purchases amount to about
$4,000 acres in this county alone,
and are located Immediately upon
the line In Marion, Harrison, Bar
bour and Taylor counties other big
purchases of coal land have been
made by the same people.
But this is only one end of the en-
terprise. From the town of Elkins
three corps of engineers are pushing
their way almost directly south
through the counties of Webster,
Pocahontas, Greenbrier and Monroe,
making route through the Allie
ghany mountains to the coal and
iron fields of Eastern West Virginia
and old Virginia. 1t is hoped to in
tersect the Chesapeake and Ohio
near Goshen, Va, and the roadway
be driven even further. With the
tidewater outlet at the East and
Pittsburg as commercial center at
the West, the road will have loads
for its cars both ways; coal East and
merchandise West, with iron and
coal from the South to carry in both
directions. One of the beauties of
the entire plan is the fact that the
people who build the roads will own
most of the land to be developed.
She is Lame Yet.