William Allen built an iron-strapped railroad on Claremont Manor before the Civil War to haul timber to the James River
Source: Library of Congress, Charles City, Pr. George and Surry counties, Virginia (by Jedediah Hotchkiss, 1867)
William Allen built an iron-strapped railroad on Claremont Manor before the Civil War to haul timber to the James River
Source: Library of Congress, Charles City, Pr. George and Surry counties, Virginia (by Jedediah Hotchkiss, 1867)
Prior to the Civil War, William Allen of Claremont Manor in Surrey County built a short railroad to haul logs to the James River. Rails were made with strips of iron on top of wooden stringers. During the Civil War, the iron was removed and sent to Richmond. According to at least one report, it was used to make ironclad warships.
In the 1870's, Maryland investors started the Surry Lumber Company and absorbed Allen's timberlands. The company used mule-drawn wagons to haul lumber from a mill at Mussel Fork on the Blackwater River to a wharf on the James River at Sloop Point. The company then built a wooden tramway to provide a less-expensive transportation process.1
William E. Griffin Jr., The Atlantic and Danville Railway Company, TLC Publishing, 2006, p.1, https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Atlantic_and_Danville_Railway_Compan/D-TYGwAACAAJ; Jack Temple Kirby, Poquosin: A Study of Rural Landscape & Society, UNC Press Books, 1995, p.208, https://books.google.com/books?id=ji-js5SqJI4C; "Civil War Legends Abound About Virginia's 'Richest Man'," Daily Press, February 17, 1991, https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19910217-1991-02-17-9102190266-story.html; "Little Engines That Could," Daily Press, November 28, 1999, https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19991128-1999-11-28-9911250014-story.html (last checked July 3, 2020)
In 1882, the General Assembly approved a charter for the Surry County Railroad & Lumber Co. to replace the tramway. A 3-foot wide narrow gauge railroad would carry finished products from the mill, located in the Mussel Fork community soon renamed Dendron.
the Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway was built to transport raw timber to mills at Dendron, then ship finshed products to market
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Surry 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1919)
A 3-foot wide narrow gauge railroad required less capital to construct and to operate, a key factor in Virginia's economically-stressed economy after the Civil War. The narrow-gauge railroad to carry timber products in Surry and Sussex counties struggled to find local investors at the same time Pennnsylvania investors were financing the Norfolk and Western Railroad's expansion of its standard gauge line into the coal fields on the Virginia-West Virginia border.
At the same time in 1882, the Virginia legislature also chartered the narrow gauge Atlantic & Danville Railway to traverse much of the same territory as the Surry County Railroad & Lumber Co.. The Atlantic & Danville Railway was more ambitious, with the legislature allowing it to build west to Danville.
For their first track, two railroads chose to build a common line between the James River and the Surry Lumber Company's mill on the Blackwater River. The shared line established a new port on the southern bank of the James River called Claremont. It was close to the Surry Lumber Company's existing wharf, used by mule-drawn wagons, near Sloop Point.
the Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway and the the Atlantic and Danville Railroad created the port of Claremont at Sloop Point
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Surry 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1919)
the Surry County Railroad & Lumber Company partnered with the Atlantic and Danville Railroad to build to Claremont (yellow line), then the Atlantic and Danville Railroad built to Emporia (yellow line)
Source: Library of Congress, Maps showing the Norfolk, Albermarle & Atlantic Railroad and its connections
On May 16, 1886, after the Surry Lumber Company went through bankruptcy, the new owners of the Surry County Railroad & Lumber Co. got a charter for a railroad known as the Surry, Sussex & Southampton Railway. The Town of Claremont was incorporated that year. William Allen had sold the family plantation, Claremont Manor, to J. Frank Mancha in 1879. He got the town chartered, and started to subdivide the 12,000 acres to create the Claremont Colony.
1
"Surry, Sussex & Southampton Railway Company," Annual Report, Virginia, Railroad Commissioner, 1898, p.193, https://books.google.com/books?id=mCUaAQAAIAAJ; "The Town of Claremont," Surry County, http://surrycountytourism.com/Claremont.htm (last checked June 2, 2020)
They then completed a separate 13-mile narrow gauge (3-foot) railroad from Dendron to Scotland Wharf on the James River. That wharf was about 10 miles downriver from Claremont, and is now the site of the landing for the Jamestown-Scotland Ferry. The old narrow-gauge route between Dendron and Spring Grove, on the way to Claremont, was abandoned.
after 1886 the Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway (red) operated a narrow-gauge line to the James River at Scotland Wharf, while the Atlantic & Danville (yellow) operated to Clermont
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Surry VA 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1919)
The Surry, Sussex & Southampton Railway also built south. It added seven miles of track to reach Wakefield by 1889, providing a connection to the Norfolk and Western Railroad. The timberland south of Wakefield justified the Surry Lumber Company constructing a lumber camp eight miles further south, named Dory. Service to Dory began in 1899 and continued for 15 years. At that time, the line ran 28 miles between Dory (now Capron) in Southampton County to the James River.
the Surry, Sussex & Southampton Railway in 1891
Source: New York Public Library, Map showing the location of battle fields of Virginia (1891)
in 1901, the Surry, Sussex & Southampton Railway ran from Wakefield to Scotland
Source: Poors Manual of Railroads 1901, Railroad Map of the United States - Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia (after p.128)
Narrow gauge track was built into the timberlands, then removed after the forest had been cleared. Wood fueled the locomotives initially, but later coal was adopted. Water for the steam engines was obtained by placing pumps in the swamps and loading up special water trains.
In 1904, the Surry Lumber Company built a new camp at Upson and maintained it for a decade, plus a camp at Vicksville. The tracks reached to within 10 miles of Petersburg. Over time, the branch lines extended into Surry, Sussex, Southampton, Price George and Isle of Wight counties.
branch lines (yellow) of the Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway (red) brought timber from the woods to the mills at Dendron
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Surry 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1919)
Sedley was built in 1907, where the Virginian Railway crossed the Surry, Sussex & Southampton Railway, and began to serve as the headquarters for the company's logging operations. The company superintendent lived in Dendron, while the owners lived in Baltimore.
After 1915, timbering ended west of the Nottaway River and branch lines were built into uncut forests to the east in Surry and Isle of Wight counties. The Surry Lumber Company did not practice reforestation; it mined the forests and then abandoned them to natural regeneration of trees.
the Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway built branch lines east of Waverly, crossing the Norfolk and Western Railway again at Ivor and the Virginia Railway at Sedley
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Ivor VA 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1920)
The Surry, Sussex & Southampton Railway was a common carrier, transporting passengers and mail as well as the lumber company's products, so residents in the area could use the railroad to travel between timber camps. Trains brought logs to the different mills at Dendron six days a week, where three sawmills and two stave/box mills created different products primarily from yellow pine. The largest sawmill, the D mill, started operations in 1902.
During peak production in 1920, there were 2,000 residents in Dendron. As the timber supply neared exhaustion, it was no longer cost-effective to extend branch lines of the railroad to small parcels of remaining trees. Production declined until the sawmills at Dendron shut down permanently on October 27, 1927.1
Jack Huber, "The Surry Lumber Company - Logs, Locomotives and Lumber," Virginia Forests, Winter 2000, http://sites.rootsweb.com/~vaschs/SLCfinal.htm; "Little Engines That Could," Daily Press, November 28, 1999, https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19991128-1999-11-28-9911250014-story.html; "Looking Back: Sedley faces new year," The Tidewater News, January 7, 2020, https://www.thetidewaternews.com/2020/01/07/looking-back-sedley-faces-new-year/; "SSS Railway: Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway," Dendrom Historical Society, https://www.dendronva.org/sss_rr.html (last checked May 18, 2020)
The closure of the mills at Dendron eliminated most of the revenue-generating traffic on the railroad. In 1930, at the start of the Great Recession, the track was removed and equipment was sold.
in 1954, the US Geological Survey (USGS) showed no evidence of the former mills and railroad at Dendron
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Dendron VA 1:24,000 scale topographic quadrangle (1954)
The Virginia Diner at Wakefield used two Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway passenger cars in its restaurant. It continues the theme today, though diners no longer sit in the original cars.1
"Little Engines That Could," Daily Press, November 28, 1999, https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-19991128-1999-11-28-9911250014-story.html (last checked May 18, 2020)
In 2021, local residents proposed dissolving the Town of Claremont. It lacked the staff to ensure building permits complied with the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act, and eliminating town government would clarify that Surry County was responsible for that task. The proposal to eliminate the official responsibilities of the Town Council included the possibility of retaining some group in a leadership capacity for ceremonial functions, such as a town parade.1 "Petition seeks to dissolve Claremont," Smithfield Times, January 19, 2021, https://www.smithfieldtimes.com/2021/01/19/petition-seeks-to-dissolve-claremont/ (last checked January 23, 2021)
after emerging from bankruptcy in 1886, the Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway built a separate narrow-gauge line to Scotland Wharf on the James River across from Jamestown
Source: US Geological Survey (USGS), Surry 1:62,500 scale topographic quadrangle (1919)
Surry, Sussex and Southampton Railway in 1913
Source: National Archives, The Library Atlas of the World; Volume 1: United States (1913)