Several Million Dollars Spent In Construction Of Parts of Line
From the 1938 centennial edition of The Times-Register
On Monday, May 16, 1897, the board of supervisors of Roanoke county met to consider an injunction awarded in 1879 in the case of John Trout et als versus the Valley Railroad company, a suit that was pending at the time. In May, 1870 Roanoke county had voted a $200,000 subscription to the Valley Railroad. After some discussion the bonds were issued and this led to the injunction. At the meeting of the board on May of 1897 the board took the following action:
On motion of T. M. Starkey, seconded by G. W. Lewis, the following was unanimously adopted by the board: “It is ordered that the counsel employed heretofore to represent this board in the case of John Trout et als versus the Valley Railroad company, now pending in the circuit court of appeals, be and are hereby authorized to file an answer and take such steps as they believe necessary to protect the interests of the county. It is the sense of this board that said litigation ought to be continued and finally brought to such conclusion as will fully and finally protect this county from being compelled to make any subscription to the stock of said company.”
Subscriptions
While the county had voted to subscribe to the stock of this company which had started to build a railroad from Harrisonburg to Salem there was much opposition to the issuance of the bonds. The opposition to the issuance of bonds by the supervisors came largely from the Big Lick and Cave Springs districts. The county board was divided on the matter of issuing the bonds although the people had voted in favor of the proposal.
It was necessary for the county judge and the supervisors to issue the bonds and the manner in which this was done was somewhat irregular and for that reason the county finally won its suit in the higher courts and did not have to pay any subscription.
Just how the county board of supervisors voted for the issuance of these bonds is not quite clear as the names of the members of the board on the day that action was taken were not listed in the minutes. The only notation made was that quorum was present.
Petitions
Supervisors Joseph W. Berry of Cave Springs was one of the supervisors who was in favor of issuing the bonds. But he offered his resignation when opposition to the proposed bond issue arose at Cave Springs. People about the vicinity circulated a petition asking that he resign.
When the election was held on the matter of Roanoke county making a subscription to the proposed road the voters of the Salem District were almost unanimous in their approval of the project. It seems the funds in Baltimore were available provided that this county voted favorably on the project and after the vote was taken here some large subscriptions were made bye Baltimore people and the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.
Bonds of the Valley Railroad were issued and placed on sale soon after the formation of the company. The sale progressed satisfactorily at first but when the depression of 1873 came along money became frozen and pledges of subscriptions were not fulfilled. Had it not been for this fact there is little question but that the road would have completed to Salem.
In 1875
When the matter first came up in court here in 1875 it was said that work on the line from Staunton to Salem had been halted temporarily but that this work would be resumed in the spring. Since the contractors had in their possession the bonds of this county which were being questioned as to legality it is seen that there was little foundation for the statement that work would be resumed in the spring.
This line had been completed from Harrisonburg to Staunton, a distance of twenty-six miles. Trains were being operated over this stretch of road by the Baltimore and Ohio when the matter first came into court here. From Staunton to Salem the distance of the proposed line was eighty-seven miles. Attorneys for the road testified that about $2,200,000 of additional funds would be required to complete the building of this line.
It was stated to court that the cost of the line from Harrisonburg to Staunton was $1,377,000 and that almost one million dollars had been spent on construction work between Staunton and Salem.
At that time which was in 1875 subscriptions by counties and cities that was paid in was listed at $300,000 while $700,000 more had been pledged but not paid.
As to the matter of the subscription of Roanoke county the matter was in court for years before the higher court held that the issuance of bonds here by the supervisors and the county judge was not done according to law. Roanoke county, for that reason, did not have to pay the subscription that was voted while the other counties were forced to pay to the railroad company the subscriptions voted by the people.
– Prepared by Lingjie Gu
