EARLY DAYS ON THE CUMBERLAND VALLEY DIVISION

by. A. J. Lamb

(L & N Railroad Magazine-1926)

During 1889, the engineering corps out of Louisville consisted of Jos. D. Haydon and the writer, and we took in all the territory from Louisville to Bowling Green, to Jellico, and Norton. We had no expense account and therefore had to get along the best we could with light lunches that we could get when our work brought us to a place where we could get anything to eat.  When we had work to do beyond Corbin, we would leave Louisville in the evening on a train called No. 25, and would return on No. 26 the next evening, which would give us a full day for work at Middlesboro.

A number of very bad slides had occurred on the road between Flat Lick and Pineville and we were working up plans for moving the track back into the bluff, our headquarters being with a Mr. Ely, who was a most agreeable host and spared no pains to make us at home with him.

One day while working near Flat Lick we heard a succession of gun shots and upon going around a curve we saw a man rush into the depot door, and his two pursuers, armed with guns followed close after him, but the leader seemed to know his business, for while the hunters, searched the freight room for him he jumped out of the garret window and fled to the woods and escaped.  From this you can see that when those fellows went to interview a man they made active efforts to do so.

The courthouse was at Pineville and at certain periods it seemed as if all the artillery in the country was being brought to the county seat.  On one occasion when I was lookup up some deeds, a couple of gunners told me I had been hanging around their records long enough and they requested me to leave their town and showed that they meant what they said by punching me in the back with their gun barrels.  Under such persuasive methods a fellow could not well refuse them, so I caught the next train out of town, but came back the next morning and completed my check of the record book.

At this time Middlesboro was in a youthful stage and had only two tracks leading through it; a main line and a siding, and on this siding the passenger coaches used to stand during the day.

I do not know how the weather performs there now, but in 1889, it rained about every day, or twice a day, and to take care of all this water quickly the town had constructed a large wooden flume in the creek bed and the water would flow down this straight channel like a mill race, carrying with it hogs, boats, goats, dogs, etc., both alive and dead.

On the east side of the track and just beyond the right-of-way was a long tent that acted as a cafe, the hungry fellows entering by a vestibule flap on one side of the tent and the kitchen arrangements located on he opposite side of the tent.

One Day we had gotten soaked through and through, so we went into one of the coaches  on the siding and after building a rousing fire in the heater, we disrobed and dried out our clothes and them on the bell cord until we had finished our toilets.

Happening to look out of the window, we saw one of our men go into this lunch tent and a few minutes later a couple of thugs stood at the door flap ready to crack him over the head with a Billy when he again reappeared. But we slipped around the cook's way and got our man and left his friends waiting for him at the entrance.

All the mountaineers seemed to be good shorts with a  rifle and one night a "blarsted Englishman" rushed  into the depot and anxiously inquired when the next train would leave town as it was not a safe place to stay just because some fellow had shot out the light in his hand lantern.

On another occasion a brakeman was throwing a switch when three shots rang out, one taking out the red glasses in the switch lamp, another white glasses, and the third the brakeman's hand lantern, and all he got was one bullet through his arm.

The main street n Middlesboro had a wide board walk for a sidewalk and the framed buildings facing this board walk included a bank, and the cash and papers were kept in a safe shaped like a ball about four or five feet in diameter. The bank president told us it was made that way so that in case of a fire it would roll to safety.  This we thought was a bit of a joke, but a few months later a fire did occur and that safe rolled down in the cellar and later was opened and the contents found to be uninjured.

The Cumberland Hotel was the first one built in Middlesboro, and it was so greatly in demand that guests could not wait to have the rooms finished but moved in when only lathed and no plaster applied.  As the window sash had not been received, a little shortage like that cut no figure, so a sheet of cotton cheesecloth was tacked up to keep out the rain but still allowed some light to enter. At the time Mr. John W. Logsdon was the assistant superintendent and he had his office in great style on the ground floor of this grand hotel.

One day we had to go to Cumberland Gap to get a measurement, and while there we decided to go to the top of the peak where three states can be seen, and there was a little booth with glass windows all around it used as a place to sell curios. While looking at these articles, a couple of men with rifles came up to us, firmly inquired what our business was up there and as they could not be convinced that we were not revenue snoopers, they still more firmly and with emphasis invited us to leave.  We did so quite rapidly, for the steep mountains lope would not permit of any slow movements on our descent. My two helpers decided to return to the depot at Middlesboro by the highway, as it was likely to be safer, but I walked down the track.  When about half way to town the cuts were very high and steep, I noted some shacks and smelled alcohol strongly.  Remembering the "friends" who had just urged us to leave the top of the mountain, I decided to attend to my own business and walked on. In the next cut I met a young woman about eighteen years of age, singing a wild song and shooting off a big revolver. I did not appreciate such people and did not feel flattered when she stuck that gun against my chest and demanded what in the blankety blank I was doing up there at her place. When I explained that I was simply a railroad surveyor on my way to get to the depot to catch a train, she instructed me with fitting words of emphasis that I had better keep on going and  not look back--and I have not looked back yet.

This shows the class of people met on every hand out that when the road was first opened.

South Eastern capitalists decided that it was a grand wild place with plenty of open spaces so they built what was called "The Four Seasons Hotel" a short distance beyond the Gap.  For a  time wealthy people from the East and abroad came there to see the wonders of the place, but like other wildcat schemes, it soon went to the wall and the buildings torn down.

The foregoing recital will give a slight glimpse of the conditions found when this new country was opened up. I understand that now it is one of the most valued feeders of the L & N  RR, and has long since shaken off its wild country ways. I trust that some of the readers of the Magazine will recognize the main points of my tale and particularly that my friend J. B. Harlan will vouch for the conditions herein outlined.

Source:  Kentucky Explorer Magazine    May, 1990