98 Year Old Railroad Tickets

I am sitting at my desk thinking of the past. How often I have thought that it would be super to travel back in time? H.G. Wells, where are you? Mr. Wells wrote his book, The Time Machine, in 1895 so even back then folks were contemplating past and future events.

I would love to have seen Glenville in the early 1900s with its dirt streets and businesses such as the Whiting Hotel.

The students that attended Glenville State College (then Glenville Normal School) traveled to our small hamlet first by railroad and then boarded steamboat river packets for their journey down the Little Kanawha River. River packets were the vessels that carried dispatches, mail, passengers, and goods. Over the years, the Little Kanawha River has been filled with silt and now in some places not even a canoe could float downstream.

The map below shows the rail road line to Glenville. You will notice the spur that dead ends at Gilmer Station. This is where Glenville State College students would load all of their belongings for the academic year onto the steam powered boats and begin their final leg of the trip to school on the river.


























I have on my desk two wonderful railroad tickets that I need to share with you. They were a gift from my best buddy, Bea Brown. She arrived at the office one day with an envelope in her hand and said. “Here, Ford and I thought you would enjoy these.”

Opening the envelope I found two railroad tickets that are in perfect condition. The first is from the Coke and Coal Railroad – one first class ticket from Walkersville to Orlando.















The second is a ticket from Orlando to Richwood on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.















You will notice the backs have been stamped on October 29, 1909 at Orlando and the next day, October 30, 1909, at Walkersville.





























Here is a photo of the train depot that once existed at Orlando. Let’s sit back, close our eyes, and imagine getting on the train at Orlando! Who was the person traveling that day? What sights did the traveler see on the trip? Was this person traveling alone? Why was this person traveling those days? So many questions, that only your imagination can answer.