Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Sarah G. Smith Collection, Accession #239, Alexandria Library, Local History/Special Collections, Alexandria, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased in October, 1958 at Mrs. Emma M Bowersett's sale.

Biographical/Historical Information

Court case against the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company and the Virginia Midland Railway Company, in which Sarah G. Smith complained that railroads operating on the "Wilkes Street tracks " were destroying her property and disturbing her neighborhood at all hours.

Scope and Content

Testimony describes the setting in Alexandria through which the trains pass. The area around the block of Saint Asaph, Wolfe, Pitt and Wilkes Streets are particularly detailed. References are made to the Wilkes Street tunnel and to local businesses including a dairy, and J. C. Herbert Bryant's fertilizer company. Locations of African American residences, conditions of paved or unpaved streets, and quality of buildings are mentioned. Railroad workers living in Alexandria are interviewed.

Indexes in front of each volume list the following names: T. O. Troy, John T. Nalls, Jas. McCuen, Paul R. Evens, Wm. L Tracy, John H. Coleman, John W. Burke, Lewis McKensie, Frank S. Harper, J. S. B. Thompson, Richard N. Roland, Margaret Vowell Smith, Francis L. Smith, M. B. Harlow, Park Agnew, John W. Henderson, F. A. Reed, Frank T. Evans, George Hatley Norton, R. E. Knight, Charles B. Marshall, Amos B. Slaymaker, Timothy E. Hayes, Joseph A. Munroe, Charles O. Sipple, Charles E. Glover, Hubert Snowden.

Arrangement

One volume is of the complainant's testimony and the other is of the defendants' testimony.