Chesapeake & Ohio Railway Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

August 13, 1900: Railroad Mogul Collis P. Huntington Dies at 78

Railroad mogul Collis P. Huntington died on August 13, 1900, at age 78. The Connecticut native grew up in poverty before moving to California during the 1848 Gold Rush. Unlike the miners, he realized that the real money was to be made from selling supplies, not panhandling for gold. After amassing a fortune, he became one of the “Big Four” railroad moguls who built two giant rail systems: the Central Pacific and Southern Pacific.

Huntington’s connection to West Virginia began in 1869, when he purchased a nearly bankrupt Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Construction of the C&O from Richmond to the Ohio River had stalled before crossing the mountains into West Virginia. Collis Huntington first extended the line over the mountains to White Sulphur Springs and Hinton. Then, in 1871, he selected a western terminus for the railroad, located on the Ohio River in Cabell County. The new city of Huntington quickly became a railroad hub and gateway to the southern West Virginia coalfields. Coal flowed into Huntington, and manufactured goods traveled out, creating a booming economy. In less than two decades, Huntington had become West Virginia’s second-largest city.

February 27, 1871: Huntington Incorporated By West Virginia Legislature

On February 27, 1871, the West Virginia Legislature incorporated the city of Huntington. It came into existence quite unlike any other community in the state.

It was named for Collis P. Huntington, who, in the early 1870s, was extending the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway from the Atlantic Coast to the Ohio River. For the western terminus of his railroad, he selected a plot of Ohio River farmland that was best known for a small teachers’ school known as Marshall.

Huntington’s brother-in-law purchased 51 farms in the area, totaling 5,000 acres. An engineer from Boston laid out a geometric gridwork of intersecting avenues and streets. In this sense, it was the most planned city in West Virginia history.

Huntington quickly became an important railroad and manufacturing center as well as a gateway to the southern coalfields. In less than 20 years, Huntington’s population had topped the 10,000 mark, making it West Virginia’s second largest city—behind Wheeling. By the mid-1920s, it had grown into the state’s largest urban area. Today, Huntington, which boasts the largest inland port in the country, is again the state’s second largest city.

November 23, 1869: C&O Railroad Company Transfers Ownership

On November 23, 1869, the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad Company transferred ownership of its struggling rail line to Collis Huntington and others. It was a major turning point in a venture that would transform southern West Virginia into a coal-producing giant.

The eastern leg of the railroad had been opened between Richmond and the Shenandoah Valley prior to the Civil War. Plans were underway to extend the line to the Ohio River. However, the war halted construction. Making matters worse, four years of brutal fighting in Virginia’s heartland had badly damaged the tracks. When the war ended, an effort was started to repair tracks and extend the line to the Ohio River.

Unfortunately, money was scarce. To attract funding, company leaders transferred the railroad to Collis Huntington and his colleagues. Huntington had played a major role in building the first transcontinental railroad and saw the C&O as the eastern section of a coast-to-coast rail line. Most importantly, he had access to major investors. Within four years, Collis Huntington had expanded the railroad to the new city of Huntington and launched the southern West Virginia coal boom.

September 12, 1872: The Big Bend Completed

The Great Bend Tunnel, also known as the Big Bend, was completed in present-day Summers County on September 12, 1872.

At more than a mile long, it cut off a seven-mile meander of the Greenbrier River and was the longest tunnel on the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway.

About 800 men—many of them African-Americans—worked on the tunnel’s construction. The crew drilled through hard red shale that disintegrated when exposed to air, causing many rockfalls and landslides. Although the exact number of deaths will never be known, many construction workers lost their lives on the project.

Great Bend’s importance to railroad construction is undeniable, but the primary reason we remember the tunnel is a bit more debatable. According to tradition, the tunnel is where John Henry defeated a steam drill, becoming one of the world’s best-known folk heroes. While it’s not known for certain whether John Henry was a real person or whether he achieved his immortality at Great Bend, it’s clear that this heroic story of man over machine resonated with a 19^th-century America that was rapidly being transformed by modern technology.