| Annual Report of the Virginia Central RR |
| as of October 1, 1865, |
| President's Report |
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Report
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To the Stockholders of the Virginia Central Railroad Company
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In the Annual Communications which it is the duty of the
Board of Directors to make to you, they have heretofore been enabled
to render an account of the condition of the company, alike agreeable
to themselves and gratifying to you; but, since your last general
meeting, the war which had been carried on for four years, and in
which all the varied interests of our whole country had become
unavoidably involved, has been suddenly and unexpectedly brought to a
close. The consequence is that this company has not escaped the
general loss which has fallen on all enterprises throughout our wide
spread community, embracing individuals, religions and benevolent
associations, bodies corporate and politic. While your Board can not
but express their deep regret for the losses sustained, and the
pecuniary embarrassment which has followed; they do not reproach
themselves with having fallen into errors, which did not pervade every
class and interest in the country. Their funds, consisting of
Confederate securities, may be regarded as a total loss; but when
confiding in the credit Government, theirs was a common error of
nearly every individual in the country; of the banks and all other
corporations -- and of the courts in their supervision of fiduciary
trusts.
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The loss which this company sustained, was not in what
some may think proper to term injudicious investments, in
Confederate securities, but a very large proportion consisted of
uncollected balances de from the government in certificates of
indebtedness, and a portion of bonds, which were required to be taken
in their current settlements.
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It is proper to state that repeated, unsuccessful efforts
were made, to collect the amount in notes, or to adjust those
balances, by taking gold at a rateable proportion, according to the
market value of Confederate paper. Our losses, as before stated, are
only such as befell almost every one else, and whilst there is no
pleasure in referring to the misfortunes of others, we may be better
able to bear our own, when we know that ours is a common lot. *****
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Receipts and Expenditures
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| The gross earnings of the Company
from September 30, 1864, to April 1, 1865, in Confederate
money (see Treasurer's statement marked C) were |
2,119,203.65 |
| Rent of real estate |
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750.00 |
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2,119,953.65 |
| The expenditures in general
administration, in the same currency and for the same period
(see Gen'l Superintendent's report, page 39) were |
1,338,574.17 |
| Excess of gross earnings over expenditures |
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$781,379.48 |
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*****
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Dividends
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In consequence of not being able to collect the amount
due from the government, the Board were unable to make the Dividend
which was in contemplation at our last meeting.
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*****
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The company had less than one hundred dollars in its
treasury, after the fall of the Confederacy, and only about twenty
miles of its road was available for producing revenue. ****
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Rebuilding Depots
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Fortunately the Depots at Gordonsville and
Charlottesville, two important points for trade, escaped destruction;
and the walls of that at Staunton are but little injured. *****
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Covington & Ohio Road
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When the war broke out, the State of Virginia was
actively engaged in the construction of this road on State account.
*****
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By order of the Board
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E. Fontaine, President
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Richmond, Oct. 5th, 1865
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