Wayland Fuller Dunaway 
History of the James River and Kanawha Company [PDF ebook] 

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The James River and Kanawha Company was Virginia’s bid for the western trade, and the works that it constructed, of which the canal was only a part, formed the chief com mercial artery of the state in ante bellum times. As such it is entitled to have its story told, and the purpose is to tell it not so much from the point of view of an agency of transportation as from that of a great ideal conceived by Washington, fostered by Marshall, and partially carried out by Cabell and his successors.