Appalachian Community Histories – Delorme, Mingo County: The Railroad Gateway to the Kentucky Coalfields
Along the Tug Fork in southern Mingo County, the history of Delorme survives through railroad maps, government reports, mine records, road names, and an unusual collection of place-name variations. The community has appeared as Delorme, DeLorme, Edgarton, and Edgerton, sometimes in records created only a few years apart.
The confusion was not simply the result of misspelling. Delorme appears to have been the name most closely associated with the railroad, while Edgerton or Edgarton was used for the post office and surrounding settlement. A federal law passed in 1904 described the location as the “town of Delorme” but immediately identified its post office as Edgerton. A later West Virginia government place-name list offered an even more direct explanation by calling Delorme the railroad name for Edgarton.
Delorme’s history is therefore the history of more than one name. It is also the story of how railroads, coal companies, post offices, schools, and government agencies divided the Appalachian landscape into overlapping communities. Though never as well known as Williamson or Matewan, Delorme occupied an important position where West Virginia, Kentucky, the Norfolk and Western Railway, and the coalfields of Tug Fork came together.
Before Delorme Was in Mingo County
The land that became Delorme belonged to Logan County during much of the nineteenth century. Mingo County was not created until January 30, 1895, when the southern portion of Logan County was separated to form West Virginia’s youngest county.
The first settlers of European descent entered the Tug Valley around 1800. Many lived as farmers, timber workers, hunters, and small landowners in settlements scattered along rivers and creeks. For much of the nineteenth century, the mountains and the limited road network kept these communities relatively isolated from major commercial centers.
That isolation began to change when the Norfolk and Western Railway entered the region. Commercial coal mining in what became Mingo County expanded after the railroad arrived in 1890. Williamson developed into an important rail center, while smaller stations, sidings, junctions, and shipping points appeared along Tug Fork. The county itself was created during the population and industrial expansion that followed the railroad.
Because Delorme remained part of Logan County until 1895, records concerning the earliest residents and landowners may be found in Logan County rather than Mingo County. Early deeds, tax books, marriage records, probate files, court proceedings, and road orders could contain information about the families who lived there before Delorme became a recognized railroad location.
A Community With Two Names
One of the most important documents in Delorme’s history is an act of Congress approved on April 18, 1904. The law authorized Frank P. Harman, or his assigns, to construct and maintain a railroad bridge across Tug Fork near Delorme.
The wording of the law is especially revealing. Congress described the proposed location as being near “the town of Delorme,” followed by the clarification “post-office Edgerton.” The federal government therefore recognized Delorme and Edgerton as related names, but it did not treat them as completely interchangeable. Delorme identified the town or railroad location, while Edgerton identified the postal address.
The proposed bridge was the subject of H.R. 13738 during the Fifty-Eighth Congress. A House report submitted on March 22, 1904, addressed the proposal before it became law. The measure later appeared in the Congressional Record as an act authorizing Harman to bridge Tug Fork near Delorme.
The law authorized a railroad bridge rather than an ordinary local road crossing. This distinction reveals the industrial purpose behind the project. A bridge at Delorme could connect the Norfolk and Western system on the West Virginia side with coal properties, timber lands, and branch lines on the Kentucky side.
The act itself does not prove that the bridge was constructed exactly as proposed. It does, however, demonstrate that Delorme had become important enough by 1904 to appear in federal transportation legislation. The location was no longer simply an isolated riverside settlement. It had become part of a larger plan for moving natural resources out of the Tug Valley.
The uncertainty surrounding the names continued after 1904. A 1911 Rand McNally map of Mingo County listed both Delorme and Edgarton among the county’s named locations. Their separate appearance suggests that contemporary residents, railroad employees, postal officials, or mapmakers may not always have applied the two names to precisely the same point.
The distinction may have been understood locally even when it was not explained in official records. Delorme could describe the railroad station, tracks, junction, or nearby river bottom, while Edgarton described the post office and residential community. Over time, the boundaries between those uses became less clear.
The Railroad Point on Tug Fork
Railroad development gave Delorme its greatest historical importance. The community stood east of Williamson along the Norfolk and Western route through the Tug Valley. From that location, branch tracks could cross or follow Tug Fork into the Kentucky coalfields.
A federal report from the early twentieth century described Delorme as being 15.9 miles east of Williamson. At Delorme, the Norfolk and Western maintained a branch extending approximately 1.55 miles up Peters Creek on the Kentucky side of Tug Fork. The report stated that coal operations were located along the branch and that both coal and timber were handled there. It also noted that extensions farther up Peters Creek and down Tug Fork were being considered.
This description captures Delorme during a period of industrial transition. The railroad had already established a short branch into Kentucky, but companies were considering additional construction. Delorme served as the West Virginia entrance to a developing network of mines, timber operations, sidings, and shipping facilities across the river.
Railroad geography often ignored political boundaries. Coal taken from a Kentucky hillside might travel first to a West Virginia railroad point. Workers could live on one side of Tug Fork and labor on the other. Company offices, post offices, freight stations, stores, and homes might all use different community names despite being connected by the same tracks.
Delorme’s position made it part of the economic life of both Mingo County, West Virginia, and Pike County, Kentucky. Its historical importance cannot be understood through the records of either county alone.
Coal Mining Around Edgarton and Thacker
State mine records show that Edgarton had become part of Mingo County’s coal geography by the beginning of the twentieth century. The West Virginia Department of Mines’ annual report for the year ending June 30, 1905, included Edgarton among the locations appearing in its Mingo County mine tables. Nearby Thacker appeared repeatedly in connection with mines operated by the Thacker Coal and Coke Company.
The appearance of Edgarton in a state mining report is significant because such reports commonly used postal locations when identifying mines, company officials, and operations. A mine listed under Edgarton may not have stood in the center of the residential settlement. Instead, Edgarton may have been the mailing address used for an operation somewhere in the surrounding coal district.
Coal communities rarely developed within neat boundaries. A mine opening might be located along one creek, while the workers’ houses stood along another. The company office could use a post office several miles away, and the railroad might identify the shipping point by a separate station name. Delorme and Edgarton fit this broader Appalachian pattern.
The coal moving through Delorme was not limited to the West Virginia side. The Peters Creek branch reached Kentucky operations, while Delorme provided access to the Norfolk and Western main line. This made the community an industrial doorway between Kentucky coal properties and the larger national railroad network.
Timber also remained important. Before mines fully transformed the mountains, logging operations removed valuable timber from hillsides and creek valleys. The federal description of the Peters Creek branch specifically stated that both coal and timber were handled there. Delorme therefore served the older timber economy as well as the expanding coal industry.
The Delorme Station and the Special-Train Wreck
Among the most dramatic episodes preserved in Delorme’s railroad history is the wreck of a Norfolk and Western special train. The surviving evidence includes an early telegraphic report sent only three hours after the wreck, company correspondence, references in the railroad’s annual report, and a later photograph of the Delorme station.
The Norfolk and Western Historical Society featured these materials in Bruce B. Harper’s article “A Bad Day on the N&W.” The archival description identifies Class V1 locomotive No. 957 as the engine involved in the wreck. The locomotive was repaired and returned to service before being scrapped in August 1929.
The company’s 1913 annual report reportedly stated that the Delorme station was either built or enlarged after the accident. If so, the wreck directly influenced the physical development of the railroad facilities at Delorme.
A surviving photograph, cataloged as Norfolk and Western Historical Society image NW05500, shows the Delorme station approximately ten years after the accident. A ventilated boxcar was being unloaded beside the structure. The station did not follow a standard Norfolk and Western architectural design, which may support the suggestion that it was constructed or expanded in response to local circumstances.
The telegrams and letters surrounding the wreck are important because they preserve the railroad’s immediate response rather than a later retelling. Correspondence involving Norfolk and Western president L. E. Johnson documented how company officials communicated after the accident and reassured other railroad leaders.
The wreck also reminds us that Delorme was more than a name on a map. Railroad employees, passengers, freight handlers, telegraph operators, miners, and local residents all encountered the station as a working place. Accidents disrupted the entire community and could lead to new buildings, changed procedures, and lasting memories.
Mapping Delorme’s Industrial Landscape
Historical maps are essential to reconstructing Delorme because the surrounding landscape was organized around railroads, creeks, property boundaries, and coal operations rather than a traditional town grid.
The 1911 Rand McNally map is especially valuable because it identifies both Delorme and Edgarton. The presence of both names indicates that the distinction between them was meaningful enough to appear on a contemporary county map.
Norfolk and Western engineering materials provide an even more detailed record of the area. The surviving source inventory identifies railroad property maps, track surveys, branch profiles, electrification plans, crossing plans, field notebooks, and right-of-way documents associated with Delorme and the surrounding Tug Fork district. These records can potentially reveal sidings, switches, station structures, industrial tracks, landowners, bridges, mine connections, road crossings, and property acquired by the railroad.
These documents are particularly important because much of Delorme’s built environment has changed or disappeared. Railroad maps can preserve the location of structures that were never marked on ordinary highway maps. They may also explain how the Delorme station related to Edgarton, the Peters Creek branch, the West Virginia main line, and the Kentucky coal properties across Tug Fork.
The maps may ultimately provide the best answer to the question of whether Delorme and Edgarton were separate neighboring places or two names used for different portions of the same community. The available evidence suggests that both explanations may have been true at different times.
The School and the Community Beyond the Railroad
The railroad and coal industry dominated Delorme’s surviving records, but families also built an ordinary community around the industrial landscape. Children attended school, residents traveled local roads, families worshiped, visited neighbors, operated stores, and crossed the river for work or business.
One of the clearest surviving reminders of community life is Delorme School Road. A West Virginia Division of Highways maintenance document identifies Mingo County Route 49/18 as Delorme School Road. The road is listed near Tug River Road and measures only a small fraction of a mile, but its name preserves the memory of a local school.
The road name does not establish when the school opened or closed. Those questions require examination of Mingo County Board of Education minutes, school censuses, property deeds, teacher records, transportation routes, and consolidation files. Such records could identify generations of Delorme and Edgarton children who attended classes there.
Newspapers may contain additional details about school programs, teachers, local elections, illnesses, marriages, church events, mine accidents, floods, road construction, and deaths. Researchers must search every known spelling of the community name. A resident described as living in Edgarton in one document might appear under Delorme in a railroad report or newspaper article.
Federal census schedules must also be approached carefully. Families may have been enumerated under Edgarton, a creek name, a magisterial district, or a neighboring community rather than Delorme. The absence of “Delorme” from an index does not mean that the residents were overlooked by census takers.
A Community Divided by a State Line
Tug Fork formed both a transportation route and a political boundary. West Virginia lay on one bank, while Kentucky lay on the other. Delorme’s history developed precisely because the railroad could connect the two sides.
The bridge legislation of 1904 recognized that Delorme stood where Tug Fork formed the boundary between West Virginia and Kentucky. The Peters Creek branch then carried the railroad into Kentucky coal territory. Delorme became the point where a West Virginia main line served mines and timber lands located across the state line.
A later West Virginia State Rail Plan continued to identify the Delorme Branch as part of the regional freight network. The plan described the branch as connecting with the Pocahontas main line at Arrow, east of Williamson. Only one-tenth of a mile lay in West Virginia before the line extended approximately 9.4 miles into Kentucky.
The difference between the short Peters Creek branch described in the early federal report and the longer route recorded in the later rail plan reflects the expansion of railroad access into Kentucky. What began as a relatively short connection serving coal and timber operations became part of a larger branch network.
Delorme’s West Virginia portion was geographically small, but its importance came from where it led. The community connected the Norfolk and Western main line with resources and settlements beyond the river.
The Persistence of the Delorme Name
The railroad station may no longer possess the prominence it once held, but the Delorme name has not disappeared.
West Virginia’s public-water-system listing identifies the Mingo County Public Service District’s Delorme system and defines the place as “Delorme, RR Name for Edgarton.” That official wording preserves the historical relationship between the two names.
Delorme School Road preserves the name in the highway system, while the Delorme Branch maintains it in railroad terminology. Government maps, public-service records, archival photographs, engineering plans, and historical newspapers continue to use the name even when modern maps favor Edgarton.
This persistence shows how railroad names could outlive the circumstances that created them. A station name might remain attached to a branch, road, water system, or neighborhood long after passenger service ended or the station building disappeared.
Edgarton likewise survived as the standardized community name in many postal, mining, genealogical, and government records. Neither name completely replaced the other. Instead, Delorme and Edgarton became two layers of the same local history.
Why Delorme and Edgarton Matter
Delorme illustrates how many Appalachian communities were created and defined during the industrial era. Their identities did not always originate with incorporated governments or carefully surveyed town limits. They developed around railroad stations, post offices, mine openings, company properties, schools, bridges, and creek valleys.
The history of Delorme also demonstrates why community research cannot depend on a single spelling or jurisdiction. The earliest records may be filed in Logan County because Mingo County did not exist before 1895. Later documents may be found in Mingo County, West Virginia, or Pike County, Kentucky. Railroad records may use Delorme, while postal and mining records use Edgarton or Edgerton.
The community’s most important period began when the Norfolk and Western transformed the Tug Valley. Federal bridge legislation, mine reports, branch-line descriptions, railroad correspondence, station photographs, and maps reveal a location tied directly to the movement of coal and timber.
Yet the surviving name of Delorme School Road reminds us that this was also a place where families lived. Beyond the tracks were children, teachers, miners, railroad workers, homemakers, storekeepers, and generations of residents who understood the difference between Delorme and Edgarton even when later records did not.
Delorme was small in physical size, but it occupied a strategic place in the Appalachian industrial landscape. It stood where two states met, where a main line met a branch, where a railroad name met a postal name, and where the coalfields of Kentucky connected with the transportation network of West Virginia.
Its history survives in fragments, but those fragments reveal a community that helped carry the resources of the Tug Valley into the wider American economy.
Sources & Further Reading
United States. “An Act to Authorize Frank P. Harman to Bridge the Tug Fork of the Big Sandy River Near Delorme, in Mingo County, West Virginia.” Chapter 1892. United States Statutes at Large 33 (1904): 182. Approved April 18, 1904. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page:United_States_Statutes_at_Large_Volume_33_Part_1.djvu/270
United States Congress. Congressional Record. 58th Cong., 2nd sess., April 14, 1904. Proceedings concerning H.R. 13738, authorizing Frank P. Harman to construct a bridge across Tug Fork near Delorme. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CRECB-1904-pt5-v38/pdf/GPO-CRECB-1904-pt5-v38-14.pdf
United States Government Printing Office. Catalogue of United States Public Documents, March 1904. Entry for House Report 1843 concerning H.R. 13738 and the proposed bridge near Delorme. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1904. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GOVPUB-GP3-8e00c4154389d663868ab7d892a57a8a/pdf/GOVPUB-GP3-8e00c4154389d663868ab7d892a57a8a.pdf
United States Congress. House. “[Report Concerning Navigation, Railroads, Coal, and Timber Development Along Tug Fork].” 63rd Cong. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1914. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/SERIALSET-06622_00_00-028-1159-0000/pdf/SERIALSET-06622_00_00-028-1159-0000.pdf
Rand McNally and Company. “Mingo County, West Virginia.” County map, 1911. Chicago: Rand McNally and Company, 1911. https://www.mygenealogyhound.com/maps/West-Virginia-County-Maps/WV-Mingo-County-West-Virginia-1911-map-Rand-McNally-Williamson-Red-Jacket-Thacker.html
Norfolk and Western Railway. “Map Showing Lands of Z. T. Vinson and Associates and Other Individuals and Companies Lying on Waters of Tug River in Pike County, Kentucky.” November 4, 1911. Norfolk and Western Historical Society Archives, HS-G11378. https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=269493
Norfolk and Western Railway. “Map and Profile of the Main Line and Branch of the Tug River and Kentucky Railroad Company.” October 24, 1913. Norfolk and Western Historical Society Archives, HS-U10108. https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/detail.php?ID=187152
Norfolk and Western Historical Society. Norfolk and Western Historical Society Archives Database. Search under Delorme, Edgarton, Tug River and Kentucky Railroad, Peters Creek, Thacker Branch, and Freeburn Branch. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://www.nwhs.org/archivesdb/
Harper, Bruce B. “A Bad Day on the N&W.” The Arrow 35, no. 1 (January–March 2019). Norfolk and Western Historical Society. https://www.nwhs.org/arrowdb/issueList.php?issue_id=215
Norfolk and Western Historical Society. Pocahontas Division Railfan Guide. Forest, VA: Norfolk and Western Historical Society, 2016. https://www.nwhs.org/convention/2016pikeville/NWHS_2016_Railfan_Guide-POCA.pdf
Norfolk and Western Historical Society. “The Hatfield-McCoy Feud and the Archives.” eTAF, March 2013. https://www.nwhs.org/eTAF/NWHS.eTAF.2013_03.web.pdf
West Virginia Department of Mines. Twenty-Third Annual Report of Coal Mines in the State of West Virginia for the Year Ending June 30, 1905. Charleston: Tribune Printing Company, 1905. https://archive.org/details/annualreportcoal23west
West Virginia Department of Transportation, State Rail Authority. West Virginia State Rail Plan. Charleston: West Virginia Department of Transportation, 2013. https://transportation.wv.gov/rail/Documents/WV_RailPlan.pdf
West Virginia Department of Transportation, State Rail Authority. 2020 West Virginia State Rail Plan: Full Appendix. Charleston: West Virginia Department of Transportation, 2020. https://transportation.wv.gov/rail/2020WVSRP/Documents/WVSRP-Full-Appendix.pdf
West Virginia Division of Highways. “Mingo County Secondary Roads Maintenance Initiative.” 2019. Includes Delorme School Road, County Route 49/18. https://transportation.wv.gov/Documents/SecondaryRoadsMaintenanceInitiative2019SecondHalf/MingoCounty.pdf
West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. “Public Water System Place-Name List.” Entry for Mingo County Public Service District–Delorme, identified as the railroad name for Edgarton. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://www.wvdhhr.org/wateroperators/documents/PWS.pdf
The Mingo Republican. Williamson, WV, 1904–1951. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86092084/
The Williamson Enterprise. Williamson, WV, 1907–1911. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86092085/
The Progressive West Virginian. Williamson, WV, 1911–1913. Chronicling America, Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn86092086/
West Virginia State Archives. “Newspapers on Microfilm: Mingo County.” West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://archive.wvculture.org/history/newspapers/mingo.html
West Virginia State Archives. “Districts and Place Names in West Virginia.” West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://archive.wvculture.org/hiStory/communities/districtplacenames.html
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National Archives and Records Administration. “ICC Railroad Valuation Records.” Record Group 134, Records of the Interstate Commerce Commission. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/research/transportation/railroad-valuation
National Archives and Records Administration. “Railroad Map Index.” Entries for the Norfolk and Western Railway and related railroad companies. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://www.archives.gov/research/cartographic/railroad-list
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West Virginia and Regional History Center. Matewan Massacre Records. A&M 2962. West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown. https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/repositories/2/resources/1090
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West Virginia and Regional History Center. Paul Salstrom, Interviewer, Oral Histories with Lincoln County Residents and Other Material. A&M 3551. West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown. https://archives.lib.wvu.edu/subjects/2211?filter_fields%5B%5D=published_agents&filter_values%5B%5D=Salstrom%2C+Paul
FamilySearch. “Catalog Search Results for Mingo County, West Virginia.” Accessed July 21, 2026. https://www.familysearch.org/en/search/catalog/results?count=20&query=%2Bplace%3A%22United+States%2C+West+Virginia%2C+Mingo%22
e-WV: The West Virginia Encyclopedia. “Mingo County.” West Virginia Humanities Council. Accessed July 21, 2026. https://www.wvencyclopedia.org/articles/1831
Author Note: This article uses Delorme, Edgarton, and Edgerton because historical records applied the names differently to the railroad point, post office, and surrounding community. Readers with photographs, school records, railroad documents, or family memories from the area are encouraged to help preserve what remains of its history.