Otelia B. Mahone

Otelia Butler Mahone (August 1, 1835 – February 11, 1911) from Smithfield, Virginia was a nurse during the American Civil War and the wife of Confederate Major General William Mahone, who was a civil engineer, teacher, railroad builder, and Senator in the United States Congress.

Popularly known in Virginia as the "Hero of the Battle of the Crater" during and after the Civil War, her small-of-stature husband was nicknamed "Little Billy."

She is credited by local legend with the naming of the towns of Windsor, Ivor, Wakefield, Waverly and Disputanta along the famous 52-mile tangent railroad tracks (now part of Norfolk Southern) engineered and built by her husband between the cities of Suffolk and Petersburg.

When he led the formation of the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O) from three trunk lines across the southern tier of Virginia in 1870, wags claimed the initials stood for "All Mine and Otelia's."

He was hired in 1853 to build the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad (N&P), which passed through Isle of Wight County not far from the Butler's home in Smithfield.

Later in 1855, they escaped the yellow fever epidemic which decimated a third of the population of the Norfolk-Portsmouth area by staying with his mother in Jerusalem (later renamed Courtland) in Southampton County.

Popular legend has it that Otelia and William Mahone traveled along the newly completed Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad naming stations from Ivanhoe, a book she was reading written by Sir Walter Scott.

Small of stature at 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighing only 100 pounds (45 kg), her husband was nicknamed "Little Billy".

A large portion of U.S. Highway 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk parallels the 52-mile tangent line of the railroad William engineered.