Lucius E. Johnson (April 13, 1846 – February 9, 1921) was a president of the Norfolk and Western Railway from September 30, 1903, until the mid teens, when he was named chairman of the board, a position he held until his retirement on January 1, 1921. For five months in 1918 (during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

), he served as Chairman of its Board. He lived in

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 ...

, United States. Johnson started his railroad career after leaving school in Aurora, working as a brakeman, fireman, then locomotive engineer. He became a master mechanic at Aurora. In 1886, he was made superintendent of the St. Louis division of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy R. R. In December, 1888, he returned to Aurora as superintendent of the Chicago division of the same road. In 1890, he was asked to take the superintendency of the Montana Central Railroad, with headquarters at Helena, Montana. In less than three years, he was made superintendent of the Michigan division of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railroad, and in July, 1897, became general superintendent of the Norfolk and Western Railway. In two years, he was made vice-president and general manager of the whole Norfolk and Western system. On September 30, 1903, Lucius E. Johnson was elected to the presidency of the Norfolk and Western Railway. Johnson succeeded the legendary Frederick J. Kimball, who had opened the Pocahontas coalfields to land the N&W railroad owned. In 1906, as N&W president, Johnson had the dubious distinction of being brought to the Standard Oil building at

26 Broadway 26 Broadway, also known as the Standard Oil Building or Socony–Vacuum Building, is an office building adjacent to Bowling Green in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The 31-story, structure was designed in the Renai ...

in New York City by

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans i ...

to meet with one of Carnegie's old friends, millionaire financier

Henry Huttleston Rogers Henry Huttleston Rogers (January 29, 1840 – May 19, 1909) was an American industrialist and financier. He made his fortune in the oil refining business, becoming a leader at Standard Oil. He also played a major role in numerous corporations ...

. N&W corporate records only state that the meeting lasted only a few minutes. However, Johnson was apparently the first of the leaders of the big railroads who finally learned the mysterious source of William N. Page's deep pockets, which had been building a new railroad across southern

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 ...

and

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 ...

to compete for the

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

traffic destined for Hampton Roads. The N&W would come to envy and covet the

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 ...

and its more modern and gentler gradient pathway for eastbound coal for over 50 years before finally acquiring it through merger in 1959. Johnson served on the board of visitors of

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also has educational facilities in six regi ...

from 1908 to 1912 and was rector from 1910 to 1912. On April 10, 1869, Mr. Johnson married Miss Ella Parker. They had five children, of whom two sons, George P. Johnson of Pittsburgh, Pa., and Edward M. Johnson of Roanoke, were living at the time of his death (as was his wife).

References

See also