Ritchie County, WV: Calico Road Railroad
*******************************************************************
USGENWEB NOTICE:  These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in
any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons.  Persons or organizations desiring to use this material,
must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal
representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb
archivist with proof of this consent.
*******************************************************************
Courtesy of:
RITCHIE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
April/May 1973 Newsletter
Article written by Dean Six

LEAVING TRACKS   Part I

Let us start at an odd place for a modern styled story, the beginning.  And
those of you who believe yourself familiar with Ritchie County railroads,
you must agree one of the larger and most successful lines to serve our
county was the Cairo & Kanawha Valley Railroad Company!

We find the C & K predeeded by another railway firm based also at Cairo.
This earlier line, being called “Calico Road,” was built by the Grahame
Crystalized Rock Oil Company, a syndicate from New York and Baltimore.
The Grahame Crystalized Rock Oil Company built this track to transport the
products of its Ritchie Mines, the noted asphalt mine on Mcfarlan Creek to
market by way of narrow gauge train to Cairo then on by the Baltimore &
Ohio lines from Cairo.

Construction began on the many trestles and several high bridges and were
completed in 1866 and tracks were laid immediately.  Three small “Mogul”
engines were purchased and delivered to Cairo as well as several small
gondolas for transporting the asphalt.

Of course, we can’t forget the naming of the Calico Road.  Stories tell
that one, James Merchant, the owner of the Alpha Hotel at Cairo spoke in
jest to the local stockowners of the company who were seeking a name for
their railway saying, “I dont’ see how you could have any name for a road
like that.  Why, it’s no wider than a bolt of ‘calico.’  Also itis related,
this conversation took place in the local general store as the shop-keeper
measured calico for a customer.

The men were struck with the humor of the gesture and the name stuck.

We might note that Mr. Merchant came to Cairo as a contractor on the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and afterward worked on the Calico Road.

We find ourselves reliving the founding nd building of one of the first
narrow gauge tracks in America.

The little engines were powered to haul about eight carloads of asphalt.
Many people having remembered this time, stated the total of cars and
contents not exceeding ten to twelve tons.

From the departure point of Cairo to tracks end, some short sixteen miles
on a quite steep grade at several places required two engines kept on the
roads eastern end and on the west end.  The two engines hauled the full
cars to Cairo and returned the empties to the top of Mellin Hill where the
other engine was located.  This lone little fellow then returned the
empties to the mine and hauled loaded cars tot he hil top to be dispursed
to Cairo.

At Cairo a high tipple was constructed for the purpose of unloading the
small Calico Cars contents into the B & O gondolas for transportation to
the eastern market.

In the early days, people often found places to situate themselves for the
free ride from Cairo to Macfarlan and the railway saw an opportunity.
Shortly, the owners built passenger coaches and guests became paying
customers.  Also the passenger cars served to carry the mail to backwoods
postal offices until the lines discontinued.

Among its claims as one of the earliest of narrow gauges, the Calici Road
also claims the honor bestowed upon it in the ‘70’s by teh press.  It was
told via the county’s newspapers that Miss Ida Hewitt, who ran one of the
Calico engines at one time, was the only “lady engine driver” in the world.
The claim remains unchallenged and so is still believed true. This story
received national attention in the 1870’s.  Miss Hewitt was later married
and as of the mid-1950’s was still living, her whereabouts unknown to the
authors.

The Calico road ceased major operations in 1877 when the mine was
abandoned.  The mines may have closed due to two explosions at the location
in 1876, claiming the lives of several wokers or possibly the vein was lost
and could not be found again although a company fromChicago reopened the
mines in 1890 for a brief time without apparent success.

After 1877, asphalt was not hauled for the Ritchie Mines in quanity nor in
large commercial lots.  The company from Chicago merely made a pretense of
mining and sold some of the asphalt to manufacturers of furniture oils and
polishes.

In 1890, H. S. Wilson and Sons, a lumber company from Parkersburg,
purchased an extensive amount of land with timber in the Mcfarlan area.
They also purchased the closed Ritchie Mines as well as the abandoned right-of
-way for the Calico Road.

************************************************************************