John Henry: Steel Driving Man

With A Hammer In My Hand…

When the Civil War drew to a close, the United States’ railway networks, particularly those in the Southern states, were in shambles. During the Reconstruction era, the rehabilitation of the southern rails and expansion of transcontinental railroads became a major undertaking, and as the importance of the railroad rose.

In the three decades after the Civil War over 170,000 miles of track were added to America’s railway system; it opened the western states for further settlement and reestablished the accessibility of the southern states. The accomplishment required a considerable workforce, and railway companies became a significant employers of thousands of men finally freed from enslavement.

The work was dangerous, physically intensive, and time consuming.  It's unknown exactly how many men lost their lives to injury or illness while expanding the nation’s railroad system during Reconstruction, but the legacy of these men lives on in one of the most enduring folk heroes in American history...the ballad of John Henry, the steel-driving man.

The Boomtown of Thurmond

The Abandoned Town of Thurmond, West Virginia

Thurmond, West Virginia was incorporated in 1901, almost three decades after its founder Captain W. D. Thurmond took ownership of 73 acres of land bordering the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad line. The Confederate veteran envisioned a prosperous community to serve the many miners working in the coal mines of the New River Gorge, and reality quickly dwarfed his original dreams.  By the beginning of the twentieth century, Thurmond became the most prosperous coal town in the state; however, much to Captain Thurmond’s chagrin, some of this success came from the notorious reputation of Thurmond’s Southside.

Between the vice of Southside and the location of Thurmond’s train depot, the community grew rapidly.  People poured into town for both work and play.  At the height of Thurmond’s boom fifteen passenger trains stopped at the historic train depot daily, serving as many as 95,000 passengers a year; but with every boom there is a bust, and once the coal industry began to wane, Thurmond could not survive.