SCIOTO AND HOCKING VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY first railroad in Scioto County
SCIOTO AND HOCKING VALLEY RAILROAD COMPANY was chartered February 20, 1849, for building a railroad from Portsmouth, Ohio, through Piketon and Chillicothe to Lancaster, Ohio. Only 56 miles of the road were built from Portsmouth to Hamden. This $50 bond was sold to raise money to develope the railroad. The bond was to mature in five years. It is signed by C. A. M. Damarin and John McDowell who were president and secretary of the company, respectively. Residents of Scioto County bought $18,000 worth of bonds, while the County Commissioners purchased bonds worth $100,000. The Scioto and Hocking Valley railroad was the first railroad in Scioto County. It was intended to link Portsmouth to Newark. On February 20, 1849, the Ohio Legilature granted a charter for the railroad and the company was organized in July 1850. Ties were laid for the railroad in 1852, the year the first locomotive came to Portsmouth. In 1863, the company was sold and renamed the Portsmouth and Newark Railroad. The following year, the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad purchased the company. On January 26, 1864, the road was sold under judicial proceedings to the reorganized Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad Company. This sale included so much of the road as extends from Portsmouth to the track of the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad. The Marietta and Cincinnati Company operated the road as its Portsmouth branch until the second sale of its road in 1869 under judicial proceedings in Ross County Common Pleas Court, when the road passed into the hands and control of the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad Company.
The Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railroad Company was sold at foreclosure July 13, 1899, after receivership begun December 31, 1898, to purchasing committee took over the tract lying within the State of Ohio. It was deeded direct to the purchasing committee on July 28, 1899.
The Cincinnati, Baltimore and Washington Railway Company was incorporated February 16, 1883. This company was formed to take the Marietta and Cincinnati Railroad on judicial sale of that road, taking the above name. The C B & W was sold at foreclosure October 7, 1889, after receivership begun December 31, 1888, to interests which conveyed the property December 28, 1889, the Balitimor and Ohio Southwester Railraod Company (1889). This company was consolidated with the B & O November 1, 1893. The Portsmouth branch ran to Hamden via Sciotoville, Solcum, Scioto, South Webster, Gepharts, Bloom, Hales Creek in Scioto Co.
The CW&B placed a station at Wait's in 1851 and then moved it, nine months later, one mile to the east to Slocum. Although the station was now in Slocum, the depot and post office still were called Wait's for some time after. The first station agent was Benjamin F. Wait, son of the man for which the station/town was named. The second station at Slocum was also a store/post office/station built by Herman Hansgen in 1911.
The South Webster station was at the intersection of Tyrrell Street and Webster Street (formerly Railroad Street).
1918 map of the B&O Yard on Market Street
