In 1881, the Clark firm bought at auction the foreclosed Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad (AM&O), an east-west railroad across Virginia controlled by William Mahone.
Otelia (née Mahone) McGill of Petersburg, Virginia was the daughter of Otelia (née Butler) Mahone and Confederate General and United States Senator William Mahone.
Legend has it that William Mahone (1826–1895), builder of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and his wife, Otelia Butler Mahone (1837–1911), traveled along the newly completed Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad naming stations.
The project had been surveyed and laid out before the American Civil War by William Mahone, who also later served under General Lee.
William Mahone (1826–1895), member of the Virginia General Assembly and U.S. Congress
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The Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad (N&P) was built under the oversight of William Mahone, young civil engineer from Southampton County, Virginia who had been educated in the first graduating class of Virginia Military Institute (VMI).
The party was led by Harrison H. Riddleberger of Woodstock, an attorney, and William Mahone, a former Confederate general who was president of several railroads.
Popular legend has it that William Mahone (1826–1895), builder of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad (now Norfolk Southern), and his cultured wife, Otelia Butler Mahone (1837–1911), traveled along the newly completed Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad naming stations.
General George H. Thomas, "Rock of Chickamauga", and a native of Southampton County, was a Union general and graduate of the United States Military Academy, likely visited his uncle James Rochelle, clerk of court for Southampton County, located just three houses away from Mahone's Tavern, home of William Mahone.
Popular legend has it that Otelia and William Mahone traveled along the newly completed railroad naming stations from Ivanhoe, a book she was reading by Sir Walter Scott.