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BOOK REVIEWS both to students and historians,is the idea that an intriguing story might capture the imagination of a creative intellect. lhis novel is the product of just such a spark. In the real story of the Civil War, many similar opportunities await intrepid writers of both history and fiction. Fiona Deans Halloran Eastern Kentucky University Edward H.Miller. 7be Hocking faney Railway. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2007. 347 pp. ISBN 9780821416587 cloth), $ 29.95. In 732 Hooking Valley Railway, Edward Miller rescues part of Ohio' s railroad history from obscurity. Knowledge of the Hocking Valley Railway ( HV)as a sepaTHE HOCKING VALLEY RAILWAY 1=* 11% 1@= 1% rate entity faded after the Chesapeake and Ohio ( C& 0) absorbed this road that ran from the hill country of southern Ohio northeast through Columbus, ending ultimately in Toledo. Miller' s work resurrects the HV' s storied history. Miller began working on the Hocking Division of the C& 0 in 1966. After learning that it had previously been the HV,he began collecting records,photographs,maps, and drawings about the defunct company, learning how it developed, what drove its development,and what became of it. After Roger Grant's brief historical introduction, Miller recounts the planning, investments, and construction that created the trunk and branch lines that eventually became the HV. ' Ihe company took its name from the Hocking River,which flows past the Ohio towns of Lancaster, Logan, and Athens on its way to the Ohio River. In the mid1850s , Milbury Greene traveled through the Hocking Hills,envisioning a transportation link from the local coalfields and iron furnaces to Columbus. After Greene and other investors overcame several obstacles, construction on the Columbus and Hocking Valley Railroad began in 1867. The railroad reached Lancaster in May 1869, Logan in August of the same year,and Nelsonville by May the following year. At the same time, Greene organized another group of investors to build the Columbus and Toledo Railroad, construction of which began in 1875; the first coal trains arrived in Toledo in January 1877. In 1881, stockholders voted to consolidate both companies as well as the Ohio and West Virginia Railway to create the Columbus, Hocking Valley, and Toledo Railway ( CHV& T).Miller details the corrupt accounting practices that accompanied the merger. Company officers devised a convoluted scheme involving correlated business ventures, bonds, and new stock sales that netted them hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of stock,but saddled the CHVkT with crippling debt. Strikes and economic depression exacerbated the company's woes during the 18905,and the company went into receivership in 1897. The " greatest auction sale in the history of Columbus" occurred in 1899 when the CHVkT assets were sold to a new group of investors that subsequently created the Hocking Valley Railway ( 98). In 1910,the C& 0 bought a controlling interest in the HV and operated it as a subsidiary until 1930, when the CBGO officially absorbed it. Over the next four decades, passenger traffic steadily declined, and in the 1970s, C& 0 executives determined that freight service was no longer profitable on the Hocking Division and retired track after track of the old road. 86 OHIO VALLEY HISTORY 6.,* 4.. 2 BOOK REVIEWS Ibe Hooking Valley Railway represents a lifetime of work. Miller has compiled a truly remarkable array of facts and details surrounding the business deals and operation of this regionally important industrial artery. Miller punctuates his narrative with memorable anecdotes about notable events, including the planned collision of two locomotives for the opening of Buckeye Park, memorable fires, the 1899 auction,and the flood of 1913. Train enthusiasts will be particularly impressed with the numerous photographs of depots, locomotives and engineers, passenger cars,hotels, and bridges; maps of the railroad and towns along the route; detailed descriptions of each station on both the trunk line and branches; tables listing earnings and equipment;reproductions of tickets and timetables;blueprints; and elevation graphs. Miller' s documentation of the Hocking Valley Railway is incredibly thorough and far exceeds the modest goals he set for himselfwhen he thought back in 1971, " Why not a book?" ( ix). Lou Martin West Virginia University John E Bauman and Edward K. Muller. Before Renaissance: Planning in Pittsburgb,18891943 . Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh...

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