Research

Scope and Content Note

This series consists of six bound volumes that record the dates when various records pertaining to railroad cases acted upon by the Board of Railroad Commissioners were received or sent by the board. The docket books date from 1883 through 1907. Earlier volumes for the years 1855 to 1857, when the board was first created and abolished after only two years, are presumably lost. The docket books contain entries pertaining to accidents investigated by the board as well as resolutions made by the Legislature and proposed legislation placed before the board by the governor, who wanted to obtain its recommendations.

The docket books do not, as a rule, document recommendations, awards, and decisions made by the board. Rather, they document the dates when various documents pertaining to a particular case, complaint, legislative resolution or bill, or accident were received or sent. Case entries will usually include the name of the individual association, city, town, or village making the complaint and the railroad company against which the complaint is made; a brief description of the nature of the complaint (or accident, legislative resolution or bill, etc.); date when correspondence initiating board action was received; dates when additional pertinent supporting documents were received or sent by the board and from or to whom; date of the board's decision; date when a copy of the decision was sent and to whom; and the date when the matter or case was closed.

The correspondence to which the docket books pertain is presumably lost. Volume one includes occasional abstracts of the board's decisions or recommendations as well as majority and minority reports of board members.