Frederick James Kimball (March 6, 1844 – July 27, 1903) was a
civil engineer. He was an early president of the
Norfolk and Western Railway and helped develop the Pocahontas coalfields in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
and
West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
.
Kimball was born in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.
Railroad career
At 18, he went to work for the Erie Branch of the
Pennsylvania Railroad as a rodman, a menial worker. After a short time, he went to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
for two years, where he worked for English railroads. Upon returning to the United States, he quickly moved up the ranks of railroading jobs. In 1870, he became a partner in
E. W. Clark & Co., a private Philadelphia financial firm. In 1878, Kimball became the prime mover behind the construction of the
Shenandoah Valley Railroad, which was building up the
Shenandoah Valley.
In 1881, the Clark firm bought at auction the foreclosed
Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad
Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O) was formed in 1870 in Virginia from three east–west railroads which traversed across the southern portion of the state. Organized and led by former Confederate general William Mahone (1826-1895 ...
(AM&O), an east-west railroad across Virginia controlled by
William Mahone
William Mahone (December 1, 1826October 8, 1895) was an American civil engineer, railroad executive, Confederate States Army general, and Virginia politician.
As a young man, Mahone was prominent in the building of Virginia's roads and railroa ...
. Kimball, who was a partner in the Clark firm, headed the new line, which was renamed Norfolk & Western Railway, and consolidated it with the Shenandoah Valley Railroad. For the junction for the Shenandoah and the Norfolk & Western, Kimball and his board of directors selected a small Virginia village called Big Lick, on the
Roanoke River
The Roanoke River ( ) runs long through southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the Ap ...
. The small town was later renamed
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke ( ) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Virginia. At the 2020 census, the population was 100,011, making it the 8th most populous city in the Commonwealth of Virginia and the largest city in Virginia west of Richmond. It is ...
. The lines were expanded from just over 500 miles of track to one of over one thousand, seven hundred and twenty-two miles in 1903, the year when Kimball died.
Under Kimball, the Norfolk & Western became famous for manufacturing
steam locomotives in-house at its Roanoke shops. Kimball, whose interest in
geology
Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ea ...
was responsible for the opening of the Pocahontas coalfields in western Virginia and West Virginia, pushed N&W lines through the wilds of West Virginia, north to
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
and
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wi ...
, and south to
Durham Durham most commonly refers to:
*Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham
*County Durham, an English county
* Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States
*Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...
and
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Winston-Salem is a city and the county seat of Forsyth County, North Carolina, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 249,545, making it the second-largest municipality in the Piedmont Triad region, the 5th most populous city in ...
. This gave the railroad the route structure it was to use for more than 60 years.
In 1885, several small mining companies representing about (1,600 km²) of
bituminous coal reserves grouped together to form the coalfields' largest landowner, the Philadelphia-based Flat-Top Coal Land Association. Norfolk and Western Railway bought the Association and reorganized it as the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Co., which it later renamed Pocahontas Land Corp., now a subsidiary of
Norfolk Southern
The Norfolk Southern Railway is a Class I freight railroad in the United States formed in 1982 with the merger of Norfolk and Western Railway and Southern Railway. With headquarters in Atlanta, the company operates 19,420 route miles (31, ...
.
Transported by the N&W and neighboring
Virginian Railway
The Virginian Railway was a Class I railroad located in Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The VGN was created to transport high quality "smokeless" bituminous coal from southern West Virginia to port at Hampton Roads.
Histor ...
(VGN), Pocahontas coal fueled half the world's navies during the 20th century and today stokes steel mills and power plants all over the globe.
Kimball died in 1903, and is buried in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was succeeded as president of the Norfolk and Western Railway by
Lucius E. Johnson.
Legacy
A request was made to rename the town of Big Lick, now Roanoke, in his honor, but Mr. Kimball turned it down. Kimball Avenue in Roanoke, Virginia, was named in his honor. A decorative fountain in downtown Roanoke was named for him and dedicated in 1907.
[Discover History and Heritage. The first issue- 1875 to 1900, by the Roanoke Times. August 2015. Page 48.] The rail station Kimball, just north of the town of Luray, VA was originally named after F.J Kimball, but the name was later changed to Elgin to eliminate confusion with another station. Kimball Road in Luray still bears his name though. (http://www.townofshenandoah.com/history.html)
References
Bibliography
* Discover History and Heritage. The first issue- 1875 to 1900, by the Roanoke Times. August 2015.
"Frederick Kimball."History of Roanoke County. by George S. Jack, Edward Boyle Jacobs. 1912.
* Lease: Roanoke Machine Works to Frederick J. Kimball and Henry Fink, Receivers Norfolk and Western Railroad.
hiladelphia llen, Lane & Scott 1895. Dated March 27, 1895. Lease of Shops at Roanoke, Va., from March 1, 1895, for six months.
* Norfolk and Western Railroad Company, George F. Tyler, and Frederick J. Kimball. Records. 1881. Abstract: The Norfolk and Western Railroad was organized in 1881, growing directly out of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad. Primarily a line carrying agricultural products at its inception, the Norfolk and Western rapidly became associated with coal transportation and with the mineral development of Southwest Virginia and West Virginia. In 1881 it acquired the franchises to four companies: the New River Railroad, the New River Railroad, Mining and Manufacturing Company, the Bluestone Railroad, and the East River Railroad. These became the basis for the Norfolk and Western's New River Division, which ran to the coal fields of the southwestern part of Virginia and West Virginia. In the 1890s the Norfolk and Western continued to expand and grow, but was forced to go into receivership in 1895, to emerge in 1896 as the Norfolk and Western Railway Company. The records include directors', stockholders', officers' and committee minutes; stock ledgers; real estate ledgers showing property owned; treasurer's letter books and statements; unclaimed wages; advances on payroll; construction expenditures; arbitration correspondence and record books; executive correspondence, reports, subject files, and contracts of George F. Tyler and Frederick J. Kimball; indexes to letters; scrapbooks of newspaper clippings; receiver's records; minutes of executive reorganization committee meetings; and annual reports and other printed materials.
* Robert Hall Smith. General William Mahone, Frederick J. Kimball and Others: A Short History of the Norfolk & Western Railway. Volume 391, Newcomen Society in North America, 1949.
See also
*
List of railroad executives
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimball, Frederick J.
1844 births
1903 deaths
19th-century American railroad executives
E. W. Clark & Co.
Norfolk and Western Railway
Pennsylvania Railroad people
People from Roanoke, Virginia
Businesspeople from Philadelphia