Preferred Citation

[Item identification], Sarah G. Smith vs. Richmond and Danville Railroad Company and the Virginia Midland Railway Company Transcripts , MS239, Alexandria Library, Local History/Special Collections, Alexandria, Va

Biographical / Historical

Court case against the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company and the Virginia Midland Railway Company, in which Sarah G. Smith complained that railroads operating on the "Wilkes Street tracks" were destroying her property and disturbing her neighborhood at all hours.

Content Description

This collection consists of two bound transcripts of the court case filed by Sarah G. Smith against the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company and the Virginia Midland Railway Company.

Testimony describes the setting in Alexandria through which the trains pass. The area around the block of Saint Asaph, Wolfe, Pitt and Wilkes Streets are particularly detailed. References are made to the Wilkes Street tunnel and to local businesses including a dairy, and J. C. Herbert Bryant's fertilizer company. Locations of African American residences, conditions of paved or unpaved streets, and quality of buildings are mentioned. Railroad workers living in Alexandria are interviewed.

Arrangement

One volume is of the complainant's testimony and the other is of the defendants' testimony.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Railroads -- Virginia
• Richmond and Danville Railroad Company
• Smith, Sarah Gosnell (Vowell), 1813-1902
• Virginia Midland Railway Company.