 The Farmville and Powhatan Railroad, later renamed the Tidewater and Western Railroad, ran to the headwaters of the Appomattox River at the town of Farmville through Cumberland, Powhatan.Although decisively helpful in keeping the agricultural community from total loss, especially in regards to bringing in valued specie into the local economy, it nonetheless failed in fulfilling its wider aims of putting the planter class back into financial prosperity.The Great Depression of 1873, and subsequent farming depressions, and most importantly the growth of Egyptian cotton and Indian cotton pushed aside American cotton, which had previously provided the prosperity of the planter class.