John T. Wilder

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Charleston Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad

John T. Wilder

Union General, Entrepreneur and Innovator

John T. Wilder 1862

Whether as a military man, or as a businessman, John T. Wilder was a natural leader and innovator. For example, it was both his exemplary skills in leadership and innovation as a Civil War Union Officer that made sure his men had the latest weaponry such as the Spencer repeating rifle. Since the Army did not supply those rifles at that time, Wilder’s leadership persuaded his men to personally purchase those rifles, and thus they won their battles and are now forever known as the ‘Lightning Brigade.’

In business, Wilder’s leadership and innovation made him a noted expert in hydraulics, even creating new inventions and holding patents by the time he was 30 years old.

Once he reached the age of 60 years, Wilder had been a General and war hero, a Mayor, a visionary entrepreneur, a successful businessman, an investor, a government official, a real estate developer, a Father to a large family, and as it relates to the 3Cs, he was a railroader. Most of his biographies summarize all those accomplishments simply as Union General and Post-War Industrialist.

Charleston Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad – 3Cs

After the war, Wilder moved to Tennessee and rekindled his early business successes, building an ironworks and the south’s first two blast furnaces at Rockwood TN. One of their products was rails for the construction and reconstruction of railroads. With the discovery of iron along the mountainous border of East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, Wilder moved to Johnson City TN to build a blast furnace and related businesses. It was said that Johnson City had the potential to be a Pittsburgh or a Birmingham when it came to steel and foundries.

In addition to the iron in the region, there were also extensive coal reserves ready to be mined in nearby Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. With the economic potential of all these natural resources and the businesses they could enable, it became clear to Wilder that a railroad was key to unlocking this economic potential.

Thus in 1884 he started to develop the plan to create a railroad from the Ohio River to the Atlantic Ocean, running directly through the center of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and their vast iron, coal, and timber natural resources. The railroad would initially run from Ashland KY to Charleston SC, with Johnson City being the midpoint and headquarters.

Wilder was the visionary and driving force behind the Charleston Cincinnati & Chicago Railroad, the 3Cs which was chartered in 1886.

John T. Wilder - 1884

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The following are excellent resources for those of you wanting to explore and learn more about the history and operation of the Appalachian Railroads. These sources of information also serve as reference and historical materials for Appalachian-Railroads.org. Much of the content on the website is verified across multiple sources.

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3Cs Websites

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