Frederick James Kimball (1844-1903) played the central role in bringing the Norfolk and Western Railway through McDowell County. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on March 6, 1844, he worked for railroad companies in Pennsylvania and England before returning to the United States to become associated with the E.W. Clark Company, a private Philadelphia financial firm. He later served as president of the Norfolk and Western Railway from 1883 to 1895 and again from 1902 to 1903. In the early 1880s, convinced that the railroad’s future was tied to coal, he visited present-day Pocahontas, Virginia, inspected the 13-foot coal seam identified in Captain Isaiah Welch’s surveys, and persuaded the company to build its main line from Radford, Virginia, to Pocahontas. From there, the railroad extended into the rich coalfields of McDowell County. Kimball also formed the Flat Top Coal Land Association, later the Pocahontas Land Corporation, to oversee the purchase and development of coal lands, and it acquired more than 300,000 acres, mostly in McDowell and Mercer counties. The town of Kimball was named in his honor.