The City of Huntington, WV

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The First Train To Huntington, WV

C & O No. 66 was one of two engines operating between Huntington and Cincinnati in the late 1880's. The engineer,
Arch Snedegar (on right), came to Huntington in 1866 with two
older brothers from Jackson, Ohio. All were C & O men.
From the collection of Bob Withers.

As noted earlier, before the year of 1871 was over people were entering the new city in droves. The Central Land Company had built a row of frame houses and a row of brick houses to help house them. Construction on the C&O began and the wood-burning locomotive, the Greenbrier , was sent down-river to begin the western end of the tracks.

Railroad Track crews pushed the track westward to Huntington from Richmond, Virginia, as soon as everything had been settled on. It was on January 29,1873, near Hawk's Nest when the last spike of construction, totaling 423 miles, was driven home. It had been hoped that the C&O line could be opened from Richmond to Huntington in 1872, but weather conditions prevented it. Soon word arrived that the first train would arrive in Huntington on January 29,1873.

In preparation for the most important event Huntington had yet known, a public meeting was held on January 21, with General J. G. Breslin as chairman. In the flowing eloquence of the day, the general told the people they had been

"moved to this assemblage this evening by the cheering intelligence which had flashed across the electric telegraph that we are upon the eve of realizing hopes long deferred in the completion of one of the most remarkable enterprises of modern times, and the appearance for the first time in our history, of a locomotive that took its morning draught from the James and refreshed its evening thirst upon the banks of the Ohio." He asked that "an event of such magnitude...not be permitted to pass without such demonstrations of public gratitude as befits the occasion."

The Whig , a Richmond newspaper, in its February 3rd edition states the excitement of the citizens of Huntington shared could not be compared. It states... "Punctual to the hour, the headlights of the engine appeared around the bend and she rushed screaming into the town. The first train from Richmond to Huntington! To say that the occupants of the train were welcomed would be a feeble way of expressing the enthusiastic display. A yell burst forth as they came up to the platform and the passengers were almost dragged out by eager hands."

On its return trip, the train pulled into Richmond on the morning of February 3, 1873, with several carloads of coal from the Kanawha coalfields attached. Specimens were distributed to be examined and tested. A few days later, on February 13, the arrival of the first freight train from Huntington was celebrated in Richmond by "salutes of artillery, cheers of the multitude, ringing of bells and the shrill whistles of fire engines," to welcome the first cargo of coal consigned to Richmond firms as a forecast of a rich harvest to come.

The Ohio River Railroad Depot, built in 1892, came to Huntington as the B&O Depot. When it was first opened, a horse car line ran between it and the C&O Depot. After a bus terminal burned in the 1930's, it was jointly used for several years by the B&O and the Greyhound Lines.