I am looking for info on the A&V RR of Mississippi. I found one reference in a history of Scott Ct town of Forrest in Ms. Did it merge with an other line ? Where would the archives be kept for 1880's? Thank you for any help you can give me.

-- sharon warnock (erollins10241@aol.com), June 01, 2000

Answers

Sharon - What type of "info" are you seeking? The railroad across the state of Mississippi from Meridian to Vicksburg was opened prior to 1860 and until 1867 was operated as the Southern R.R. of Mississippi. Like so many other railroads of the south, destroyed by an invasion, the SRRofMiss had to reorganise in 1867. The new company was the Vicksburg & Meridian R.R. The Alabama & Vicksburg R.R.(A&V RR) suceeded the V&M in May 1889. The A&V came under control of the Queen & Crescent Route(CNO&TP Rwy) prior to 1900. The Q&C's control was acquired by the Southern Railway in 1916. While not owned by either the Q&C or SR, the control of the A&V by these companies continued until June 1926 when control of A&V passed to the Yazoo & Mississippi Valley, a subsidiary of the Illinois Central R.R. This information has been derived from William Edson's book, RAILROAD NAMES, and Richard Prince's book on the SOUTHERN RAILWAY. The Edson book is currently available. If the Prince book hasn't been reprinted by the University of Indiana, it probably will be soon. You asked about archives... If you are looking for employee records, you are probably out of luck. Except for the Railroad Retirement Board in Chicago, whose records don't go back to the 1880's, and the employee unions files, doing genealogy of railroad employees of the pre-1900 era is next to impossable. Unless someone has better information, the only "archives" the current railroads might have would be a set of annual reports of the 1880s, as given to share holders.

-- Tom Underwood (tlunder@attglobal.net), June 01, 2000.

yo mamma

-- Sally Hemit (aolmeorelse@aol.com), February 12, 2004.