In approximately 1886, B&O Telegraph constructed a line adjacent to the KCFtS&M between Jonesboro and Memphis. KCFtS&M had a telegraph contract with Western Union at the time, and tried repeatedly to discourage B&O from building, by cutting down poles, etc. It was necessary for B&O telegraph to get a court injunction to halt the hostilities. Can anyone offer suggestions on how to get a copy of the court order or papers? Thanks, Bill Pollard
I'm no lawyer, but for a query like this I would start by checking either (1) the archives of the companies in question, or (2) a major law library in the relevant state, which in this case I would presume to be Arkansas. You might need to figure out which court issued the order. (State? Federal?) The University of Arkansas at Little Rock / Pulaski County law library might be a good place to start. I do not know whether court orders from that time period are publicly archived, but these are the folks I would ask. If they can't help directly, they might be able to suggest other law libraries that could. http://lawlibrary.ualr.edu/ The current corporate successor to the KCFS&M and Frisco is BNSF, I presume, but I don't know whether their legal dept. would still have files from ancient history dealing with contracts and disputes that are no longer relevant to the company, or whether they'd be willing to share them if they did have them. Some of the Frisco company papers ended up at the archives department of Missouri State University in Springfield, but they might not have included legal documents and, although MSU is to be praised for preserving these documents, they did not, the last time I checked, have them all inventoried and indexed. (It's a massive task -- they might be receptive if Frisco Folks in the area were able to volunteer to help out.) What you're looking for might be a real needle-in-the-haystack.... Good luck!
