The Railroad

The Railroad

Damascus Enterprise Company
Abingdon Coal and Iron Railway Company
General Imboden
Capt. W. P. Fortune
Virginia-Carolina Railroad Company
W.E. Mingea
Robert E. Fortune

The Damascus Enterprise Company, of which General Imboden was head, helped to organize the Abingdon Coal and Iron Railway Company with the purpose of bringing a railroad from Abingdon to the lumber lands near Damascus.

Captain W.P. Fortune, an ex-Confederate, a lawyer, and a railroad construction engineer, took the contract to grade a railroad bed from Abingdon to Damascus.

In 1893 during the panic, the company failed and work on the railroad was discontinued along with most all of the development under way in Damascus. In 1900 this company sold out to the Virginia-Carolina Railroad Company of which W.E.Mingea of Abingdon was the head. Mr. Fortune then completed the road bed, working prisoners hired from the state. The first locomotive reached Damascus January 25, 1901.

Louise Fortune Hall

A History of Damascus, 1793-1950 (p. 14)

Washington County Public Library

1900

Will Stein

Hall Collection-Washington County PL

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