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Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries (0434)Original web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2002.
Clayton McGahee, Staff, and John M. Jackson, Archivist
The copyright status of this collection is unknown. Copyright restrictions may apply. Contact Special Collections and University Archives for assistance in determining the use of these materials.
Reproduction or digitization of materials for personal or research use can be requested using our reproduction/digitization form: http://bit.ly/scuareproduction . Reproduction or digitization of materials for publication or exhibit use can be requested using our publication/exhibition form: http://bit.ly/scuapublication . Please contact Special Collections and University Archives (specref@vt.edu or 540-231-6308) if you need assistance with forms or to submit a completed form.
The collection is open for research.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Norfolk and Western Railway Accounting Department Personnel Records, Ms1992-058, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The collection was acquired by Special Collections and University Archives prior to 2002.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Norfolk and Western Railway Accounting Department Personnel Records was completed in 2002. Additional description was completed in 2008.
The Norfolk and Western Railway was organized in 1881 from the Atlantic, Mississippi, and Ohio Railroad. Primarily a line carrying agricultural products at its inception, the Norfolk and Western rapidly became associated with the mineral development of the southwestern part of Virginia and West Virginia. In 1881 it acquired the franchises to four other lines: the New River Railroad, the New River Railroad, Mining, and Manufacturing Company, the Bluestone Railroad, and the East River Railroad. These companies became the basis for Norfolk and Western's New River Division, which ran to the coalfields to the west.
Much of the early history of the Norfolk and Western Railway can be written in terms of expansion and consolidation with other lines. In 1890, it acquired the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, which ran from Roanoke, Virginia, to Hagerstown, Maryland. By 1891, an Ohio extension was well underway, giving the railroad access to the industrial Midwest. In 1892, Norfolk and Western leased the Roanoke and Southern Railroad, connecting Roanoke with Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and in 1893 it leased the Lynchburg and Durham, connecting Lynchburg with Durham, North Carolina. But this program of expansion, coupled with the economic depression of the 1890s, forced the railroad into receivership in 1895. It emerged as the reorganized Norfolk and Western Railway the next year.
The Norfolk and Western Railway Accounting Department Personnel Records are comprised of employee records of the company's accounting department from 1874 to 1907. The three ledgers include such information as employee name, age, marital status, date and place of birth, date of hire, jobs worked, and salary. Also included are notes regarding resignations or discharges. Interspersed throughout the ledgers are correspondence, memos and notes relating to such things as employment reference requests from other companies and employee infractions against company policies.
It is important to note that these records relate only to personnel who worked within the company's accounting department. Special Collections and University Archives does not hold any other Norfolk and Western personnel records.
The records are arranged in chronological order.
The guide to the Norfolk and Western Railway Accounting Department Personnel Records by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).