James Madison University Libraries Special Collections
820 Madison Drive MSC 1706 Harrisonburg, Virginia 22807 Telephone: (540) 568-3612 library-special@jmu.edu URL: https://www.lib.jmu.edu/special/
Tiffany Cole
Repository
James Madison University Libraries Special Collections
Identification
SC 0358
Title
Charles Grattan Price Jr. and Don W. Thomas collection on the Chesapeake Western Railway 1872-1996
Quantity
2.84 cubic feet, 8 boxes
source
Price, Charles Grattan, III
Creator
Chesapeake Western Railway
Creator
Price, Charles Grattan, Jr., 1919-1996
Creator
Thomas, Don W. (Don William), 1890-1962
Language
English
.
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 .
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).
Access 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Mixed Materials [1000897415] box: 2 folder: 8
C. Grattan Price Jr. correspondence and research materials
1894-1974
Mixed Materials [1000897415] box: 2 folder: 9
C. Grattan Price Jr. correspondence and research materials
1937-1996
Mixed Materials [1000897416] box: 3 folder: 1
C. Grattan Price Jr. correspondence and research materials
1994-1996
Mixed Materials [1000897416] box: 3 folder: 2
Don W. Thomas correspondence
1946-1947
Scope and Contents
Regarding the history of rail transportation in the Shenandoah Valley.
Mixed Materials [1000897416] box: 3 folder: 3
Don W. Thomas correspondence
1946-1956
Scope and Contents
Concerns history of transportation in the Shenandoah Valley.
Mixed Materials [1000897416] box: 3 folder: 4
Don W. Thomas correspondence and research materials
1947-1952
Scope and Contents
Includes transcribed newspaper articles and lists of instances railways were mentioned in newspapers.
Mixed Materials [1000897416] box: 3 folder: 5
Assorted research materials
1872-1966
Mixed Materials [1000897416] box: 3 folder: 6
Newspaper clippings
1895-1992
Scope and Contents
Includes originals, transcripts, facsimiles, and photocopies.
Mixed Materials [1000897416] box: 3 folder: 7
Assorted research materials and newspaper clippings
1929-1988
Mixed Materials [1000897416] box: 3 folder: 8
Assorted printed materials and articles
1937-1961
Scope and Contents
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.
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 1
Typed newspaper transcriptions (1895)
circa 1950s
Scope and Contents
The newspaper articles transcribed date to 1895. The transcripts themselves likely date to circa 1950s.
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 2
South Shenandoah Valley of Virginia
circa 1948
Scope and Contents
Four copies
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 3
Transcript of Report & Documents...Granting the Right of Way to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Co.... (1847)
undated
Scope and Contents
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.
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 5
Map accompanying Report of John Rapelje on Railway Routes across the Virginias (Nos 1 & 2)
Hotchkiss, Jedediah, 1828-18991894 September 171894 October 31
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 6
Map accompanying Report of John Rapelje on Railway Routes across the Virginias (No.4)
Hotchkiss, Jedediah, 1828-18991894 November 27
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 7
Virginia railway maps
1901-1989
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 8
Map Showing Route of the Chesapeake Western Ry. to the Coal Fields of West Virginia
1902 March 3
Scope and Contents
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
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 9
Plat of the Chesapeake and Western Railroad Company's property at McGaheysville, Virginia
May 1931
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 10
Map of Chesapeake Western Railway Station 1319+00 to end of track in Staunton showing all changes since Aug. 11 1948
1949 October 27
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 11
Map Showing Chesapeake Western Railway and Adjacent Territory
1954 July 27
Scope and Contents
Includes ten copies.
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 12
Property Map of Rockbridge Building and Loan Association, Inc. Acting as Agent and Trustee for Virginia Holding Corporation
1955 September 23
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 13
Map of Norfolk and Western Railway Company, etc.
1961 January 31
Scope and Contents
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
Price, Charles Grattan, Jr., 1919-1996Daggy, Walter S., 1896-1988Reid, H.1892-1992
Scope and Contents
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.
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 14
The Crooked & Weedy Chapter I original photographs
1896circa 1950
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 15
The Crooked & Weedy Chapter II original photographs
1892-1895
Mixed Materials [1000897417] box: 4 folder: 16
The Crooked & Weedy Chapter III original photographs