The Virginias not only provided an opportunity to present information and maps of Virginian mineral lands to a wide audience, including subscribers in England; it ensured that Hotchkiss became well known to mining engineers, investors, and railway magnates. Among the latter was Frederick J. Kimball. He was a trained railroad engineer who had spent some time in the workshops at Crewe, England. He later joined a major banking house, E. W. Clark and Sons of Philadelphia, as a railroad specialist. His uncle, William Milnes, had bought the Shenandoah Iron Works once owned by the Forrers. A railroad alongside would be of enormous advantage. The Clarks put up the money, Kimball supervised the construction and was made the President of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad. In his journal, Hotchkiss published a map of the line, and of the territory tributary to it. Thus began an association with Kimball which was to have far reaching consequences. The Cl arks and others acquired the bankrupt A.M. and O. Railroad which ran from Norfolk to the southwest corner of the State, renamed it the Norfolk and Western Railroad, and appointed Kimball a vice¬president. Kimball extended the Shenandoah Valley Railroad to join the N & W at a village called Big Lick, soon to become the thriving city of Roanoke. Hotchkiss had advised on the location of a route on the western side of the Blue Ridge, and reported on the seology and mineral deposits of the neighbouring country. [18]

In 1881, when Kimball wanted an independent supply of coal to fuel his locomotives, he again turned to Hotchkiss for advice. Hotchkiss replied promptly, for he was well aware of the richness of the coal seams exposed by the creeks cutting into the steep southeast escarpment of Great Flat Top mountain in southwest Virginia. Eight years earlier he had sent a surveyor, Captain I. A. Welch, to examine and report on this region. Here Welch had found 'on the land of Mr. Nelson, a bed of coal had been driven into, for about 50 feet, that measured 9 feet in thickness from floor to roof, that had a slate floor of 10 inches under which Mr. Nelson said there was 2 feet more of coal', Welch further reported, 'The whole coal-field is regular in its stratification, and, making full allowance for any mistakes in locating the various beds, I feel fully assured in making the amount of coal that can be successfully mined - taking into account no bed less than three feet thick ... as 30 feet, and I am sure, if all the beds are developed, it will greatly exceed that amount'. In the light of this knowledge, Hotchkiss wrote to Kimball, 'At the earliest possible moment I have constructed, and herewith hand you, a Topographical Map showing what I conceive to be the best route, or routes, from the Norfolk & Western Railway to the Great Ohio Coal Basin, all things considered ... [19]


'The advantage of the two proposed routes was that the coal¬beds could be reached near the level of their outcrops; and then these outcrops may be followed northward for mining the coal and the point of vantage has been gained for crossing from the highest levels of the stream-valleys over to the Great Carbonifer¬ous Plateau, with its vast resources of timber and coals of many kinds, ... and thence down ... to the Ohio to the railway systems of the west.' In this sentence led expressed his vision of the future and by doing so made a substantial contribution to its realization. As a direct result, mining operations began at a place to be called Pocahontas, and an extension to the N& W constructed by the route favoured by Hotchkiss. For at least the next forty years coal from the seams of this immense field was the principal source of steam-raising fuel in the V.S. The social consequences of the development and subsequent decline of this great industry are still with us.

Thus, the 'Topographical Map showing Possible Railway Routes to Great Ohio Coal Basin from Norfolk & Western Railway by led Hotchkiss, Cons. Eng'r. Staunton, Va .. April 1881' is an historic document of major importance in the industrial and social record of the Virginias.[20]

For the remainder of his life Hotchkiss concerned himself with the mapping of coal and timber lands for the coal land associations organized to exploit the resources which railroad development had rendered profitable. He was financially involved in most of these associations and active in their management, but his principal role was to organise the survey and cartographic services essential for the successful commercial development of hundreds of square miles of a wild, ravine¬ridden mountain region. Much of this effort did not yield its full reward until after his death, but he was able to witness the expansion of the N&W into the major coal carrying railroad of the V.S., a direct consequence of his skill as a mapmaker.

Although Colonel Lawrence Martin's motive for wishing to acquire Hotchkiss maps for the Library of Congress was their significance in the prosecution of the Civil War in Northern Virginia, the collection purchased by his successor contains a sufficient number of non-military maps to remind us that the services of Jedediah Hotchkiss to his adopted State were at least as great in peace as in war.

References:

1. J. Cooke Wylie to C. Vernon Eddy, February 13, 1948. This is one of 141 letters written between March 30, 1938 and April 27, 1964 found by the author at the former residence of Mrs. R. E. Christian, grand-daughter of Jedediah Hotchkiss, at Deerfield, Virginia. These letters are now located in the Martha S. Grafton Library, Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia. Unless stated otherwise the letters quoted are among this collection.
2. Everard Kidder Meade. 'Maps and other papers of Major Jed. Hotchkiss C.S.A.•, Proceedings of the Clark County Historical Association, Vol. 8. (1948:59). C. Vernon Eddy to Mrs R. E. Christian, March 30, April 4, 1938.
   
3. Mrs G. S. Holmes (Nellie) to Mrs R. E. Christian, May 25, 1938.
4. The two boxes of maps. weighing 325Ibs., were sent to Richmond on August 3, 1938. The description of Battle Abbey is that of C. Vernon Eddy in a letter to Mrs Christian, July 17, 1947.
5. C. Vernon Eddy to Mrs R. E. Christian, January 29, 1948.
   
6. C. Vernon Eddy to Mrs R. E. Christian, February 18, 1948.
7. Alton H. Keller, Chief of Order Division, Library of Congress to Mrs R. E.Christian, April 19, 1948.
8. Mrs. R. E. Christian to C. Vernon Eddy, June 14, 1948. Three of the maps were a gift to Eddy as Librarian of The Handley Library, the fourth, the large map of the Shenandoah Valley, remained in the ownership of Mrs Christian, but was loaned to The Handley Library in consideration of the deep 'interest and courtesy' shown by Eddy to Mrs Christian in connection with the discovery and disposal of the Hotchkiss maps and papers. At the same time a revised offer of $4,100 for the remaining maps was accepted by Mrs Christian. Following the death of C. Vernon Eddy in October, 1963, the Shenandoah Valley Map was transferred to the Library of Congress.
9. Francis L. Berkeley, Jr. to Mrs R. E. Christian, July 6, 1948.
10. Clara E. LeGear, 'The Hotchkiss Collection of Confederate Maps', Library of Congress Quarrerly Journal of Currel11 Acquisilions, November, 1948, reprinted in A la Carle: Selecled Papers on Maps and Atlases, Compiled by Waiter W. Ristow (Library of Congress, Washington, 1972) pp. 183-8.
11. Plot of D. Forrer's Meadow, Hotchkiss Papers, Microfilm Reel 39 Frame 486, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress. Journal of Jed Hotchkiss, April 26 to August 2, 1847 and August 3, 1847 to March 1848. Hotchkiss Papers, Microfilm Reel I, Library of Congress.
    Painting inscribed 'Class 11 Isosandria Ord. 12 Polyginia Rosa Mar/47 Mahony Pa. J Hotchkiss•. Hotchkiss Papers. Box 6. Alderman Library. University of Virginia.
12. Jed Hotchkiss Diary, March 26, 1862. Archie P. McDonald, ed. Make me a Map of Ihe Valley: Ihe Civil War Journal of SlOnewall Jackson's Topographer, plO.
13. In a letter to Hotchkiss, December 29, 1865, S. Howell Brown. who also had been a topographical engineer with the Army of Northern Virginia, wrote that the only map he had saved was •that of the Valley from Potomac to Staunton and from mountain to mountain'. Hotchkiss Papers, Microfilm Reel 49, Frame 21, Library of Congress.
14. April 4, 1865. Archie P. McDona1d, p.264.
15. Clara Egli LeGear. The HOlchkiss Map Collection, (Washington, 1951, reprinted 1977). Archie P. McDonald, p.116
16. William Barton Rogers, Reporr of the Geological Reconnaisance of Ihe Stale of Virginia, /836, p.126.
17. A facsimile of the map issued as a supplement to The Virginias Vol. 1 No. 6, June, 1880, is among the maps accompanying A Descriplion of Ihe Counlry:
    Virginia Carlographers and Iheir Maps, E. M. Sanchez - Saavedra. (Richmond. Virginia State Library. 1975).
    Details of the maps exhibited at the New Orleans Exposition are given in The Virginias Vol. 6 No. / January, 1885:3-4.
18. For a history of the Norfolk and Western Railroad see Joseph T. Lambie From Mine 10 Market, New York University Press, 1954. Jed Hotchkiss to F. J. Kimball, November 6 and 15, 1880, Hotchkiss Papers, Microfilm Reel 18, Frames 254-271, Library of Congress.
    Map of Ihe Shenandoah Valley showing the location of The Shenandoah Valley Railroad and of Ihe iron ore bellS and olher mineral deposils. Supplement to The Virginias Vol. 2 No. 5, 1881.
19. Jed Hotchkiss to F. J. Kimball, April 14, 1881, Hotchkiss Papers, Microfilm Reel IR, Frames 295-299, Lihrery of Congres.
20. This map is located in the Special Collections Department, Newman Library, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia.

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