the famous 52 mile-long tangent track between Suffolk and Petersburg which is also part of a major artery of modern Norfolk Southern rail traffic. In 1855, Mahone married Otelia Butler (1837–1911). She was the daughter of the late Dr. Robert Butler from Smithfield, Virginia, who had been Treasurer of the State of Virginia. Otelia, who was said to have been a "cultured" lady, and William Mahone settled in Norfolk. A yellow fever epidemic swept through Norfolk in 1855 and within several months, killed 2,000 people, nearly a third of the population. However, the Mahones went to stay with his mother in Courtland, about 40 miles away, until the epidemic passed. Construction of the new railroad was delayed for more than a year due to the many deaths and resulting financial hardships to those financing the project. Ever frugal, Mahone was widely credited with staying within a very tight budget while maintaining his high engineering standards, earning considerable public esteem along the line. Naming stations Otelia Mahone became a well-known character of sorts in her own right. 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. From Scott's historical Scottish novels, she chose the place names of Windsor, Waverly and Wakefield. She tapped the Scottish Clan "McIvor" for the name of Ivor, a small Southampton County town. No one seems to know how Zuni, a station located between several of the others, was named. However, when they reached a location in Prince George County not far from the end of the line in Petersburg, apparently the couple could not agree. It is said that they invented a name based upon their "dispute", and that is how Disputanta was named. In 1858, the railroad was completed and William Mahone was named its president in 1860. American Civil War By the time the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad was completed, the clouds of conflict which would become the American Civil War were already forming. In 1861, the railroad had 85.5 miles of track, 13 stations, 6 wood-burning steam locomotives, and 98 freight and passenger cars. Mahone was envisioning joining his 2 neighboring railroads to the west to create a through-line across the entire southern tier of Virginia to Bristol, Tennessee. However, the War interrupted that work. After Virginia voted to secede on April 17, 1861,