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ERSON COUNTty W. VA., FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1888.S ” be-irough10 svs-♦onous lt;1 and towels. r, not in the ithart-11 with, etc,does ig the t onlv is well er lt;*08-ibit of or dis-withwas , and else, dne-dose after e meitil I e not it init it.u red lper-red /I CO.sr,e. Tho is full legan tthem.d,rloHsy.it. It’s ill not ou buy :o you.jh:v-1»ES,whichHeavy • finest 1101*-ieh fordura-Their ii year r care.ioh tho o to fitpricesade at ion allm THE COAL REGION.MINES OF WEST VIRGINIAmaun-11 give would lo ourit and, great ive not aspect here.e stillwhat If you ollar,” ts and » have lusivo-r,—lie off Pins. VR-inhr-.i-utsideprices.or line e seenes will e havedt you•lee ted*-make, gold-apidlv of thol them n $1.25 • what n thiss.,RIprless to sliort-,eed.r Cuts, tu, Ke-Chli-lU,UU' nr rc-[xirfwt Price rmT. Mfc-FORESTS OF OAK AND SPRUCE.A Trip of Inspection over the West Virginia Central Railway4-The Stations Named After Well-Known Men.[Special Dispatch to Dalto. San.1CrMUEKLAND, Md., Nov. 16. Allall day trip over the West Virginia Central Railway from this city means an early morning ride over the new Cumberland and Piedmont Railroad, as it follows the meander-ing upper Potooiac until Virginia .Junction is reached. There the train plunges over the Central’s lines iuto the forest; passes out in ear-shot of the Elk Garden coal region; winds its way around the steep mountainsides, gradually ascending two thousand feet almost to the peaks of the Alleganies, where the engine’s escaping steam mingles with the overhanging clouds.Such a trip the Central's president, ex-Senator Henry G. Davis, and a party of gentlemen made to-dav. Mr. Davis and his guests came on from Baltimore last night, and at 8 o’clock this morning they took possession of the private cars of Vice-President Orland Smith, of the B. and 0., and of the late John W. Davis, which had been placed at their disposal. Engine No. II, with Engineer Barker at the throttle and General Manager C. L. Bretz in charge of the train, pulled the two cars over the mountains. In Cumberland the party was joined by lion, Win. Walsh, Mayor Shuck. Mr. I). K. Estc Fisher, son of ex-Judge Fisher, of Baltimore, Mr. Robert Shriver, Mr. W. J. Read, Supervisor of the Road Galbrieth and Mr. J. W. Avirett.At Keyser the party was joined by Col. Thomas B. Davis, the brother and partner of ex-Senator Davis. All the passengers wero on an inspection trip, and they thoroughly inspected both the road and picturesque mountains through which it winds its way. The first slop on the Central was made at the mineof the Big Vein Company, tn the Elk Garden region, the daily output of which is about 150 tons. Mr. J nines Little, who was a member of the inspecting party, is the superin tendon-*.Back over the mountain tops is Elk Garden, where the West Virginia Central takes its coal from an eleven-foot vein. This coal now comes over inclined planes and trauiroads to the Mineville Branch, but Colonel Davis constructing a branch along Abrams creek that will do away with the tramroads and will greatly increase the output of the Elk Garden mines. This will bo ready by January 1 at the latest.The train speeds onward in the shadow of high walls of rock. There is a refreshing newness in the scenery and the houses. Ten years ago there was not a house within ten miles of the road. There is now small villages, with the buildings unstained bv weather, arc perched on the mountain sides. Huge hemlocks, oaks and spruces have been felled, piled up along the streams, and now await the whirling steam saw.Around a horseshoe the train gets over the mountain, is switched off at Thomas, and ten minutes later Davis, with stumps still standing in its streets and a big hotel on a hill, is reached. The hum of industry is heard through the village. Then the train returns to Thomas and enters upon the new extension. A new world breaks upon the view of the astonished sight-seer.The train climbs the mountain si tie until the passenger peering from the car window sees, 300 leet below, the inky waters of the Black-water whipped into a foam by tho rocks over which the stream plunges. A succession of falls greets him. High above rises the Blackwater ridge, with cascades tumbling down its sides. The scenery is Alpine in its outlines. Then the Cheat river, formed by several forks, is reached. A new bridge is being built over the river to carry the road to Lcadsville, its present terminus. Mr. James Fisher, son of ex-Judge Fisher, of Baltimore, is one of the engineers ot the bridge.After a halt of a few minutes the return trip is begun, and as the train ascends the mountain side dinner is partaken, and Mr. \\. W. Spence. ex-Senator Davis and Major Bent make short speeches. Lumber! and is reached at 7 p. in. The party will return to Baltimore tomorrow.The country through which the road extends is wild, weird and romantic. The road found a tew log cabins occupied by a primitive and ignorant people, whom they call mossbacks, and who make a livelihood by hunting, lisbing and digging ginseng. With the road has come a mixed population of Italians, negroes. Irish and Virginians. Bearand deer roam through the country. Bob Eastbam, a Confederate scout who has never surrendered, is the great hunter of the country. Last year he killed 78 deer. Mrs. Julia Baker is a Diana who has slaughtered bear and deer. Before the advent of the road the country could only be traversed by wading streams in summer, so thick is the laurel and so precipitous arc the mountain sides.THE WEST VIRGINIA CENTRALS ROUTE.Until the past August the West Virginia Central began at West Virginia Junction, where it connected with tho Baltimore and Ohio, and extended thence in a Southwesterly course through West Virginia to Davis, a distance of 70 miles. Its well-remembered war with the Baltimore and Ohio, culminating in the Cookerly farm dispute, caused the extension to Cumberland, that direct connection could be made at that point with the Pennsylvania Com pany’s line and the Chesapeake and Ohio canal. The Piedmont and Cumberland road was built, a distance of 26 miles, to furnish this connection, and it was completed in August last. The B. and 0. and West Virginia Central are on good terms once more. The road is now about one hundred miles long, and places the Elk Garden region nearer Baltimore than any competing line. In fact, no bituminous coil region is nearer the tidewater than the Cumberland and Elk Garden regions. From the Kanawha region to Newport News it is 410 miles; from Pocahontas to Norfolk it is 3SG miles: from Clearfield. Pa., to Philadelphia it is 253 miles, and to New York 322 miles. Baltimore, then, is only entering upon its career as a point for distributing coal.WHY WAS IT BUILT?The road was built to bring the immense coal fields of West ^ ir-ginia within reach of a market. Without the mines it would be worthless. Its charters granted by the State of West Virginia confers the privilege of buying and selling real estate, mining coal, iron ore and other minerals, buying, selling and manufacturing lumber. All these privileges have been enjoyed more or less. The company now owns in fee 20,069 acres of coal and timber lands, 3,175 acres of iron ore lands, a total of 32,244 acres, and has Hie mineral rights of 1,743 acres of coal lands, 3,694 acres of iron ore lands, a total of 37,651 acres placed at their disposal. This is only a portion of the land owned by private individuals, and the products of which are carried to market over the road. The company's real estate is valued at $5,908,458.76. The cost of the road propor, a distance of 00 miles, has been $1,107,-138.08. The road has not lieen invulnerable to floods. Last summer its trestles were washed away, but they are now being replaced by stone culverts.THE EXTENSIONS.The coal mines and forests have been the magnets which have drawn the West Virginia Central foot by foot to anti even through them, and its extension will not stop until connection is made with the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad, by which the great iron mines of Southeastern West Virginia and Southwestern Virginia will be reached, and then will the immense iron shipments which now go to the tidewater at Norfolk by the Chesapeake and Ohio be diverted to Baltimore. No feeder of that city will outrank it. A shorter route to Baltimore than l»y Cumberland would be over the mountains to Strasburg, and there connecting with the Valley Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio and the Virginia Midland, and this route was once surveyed, but it was found to be so expensive that it had to be abandoned. But will the West Virginia Central ever have its own road direct to Baltimore? That s a question for lime to answer. It is iu thebounds of probabilities that thelong discussed project of turning the towpatli of the Chesapeake and Ohio canal as far as Williamsport into a road bed will be realized. The project further extended would mean a connection with the Western Maryland Railroad at Williamsportand up the Hancock valley until it taps the Pennsylvania lines. Still another possible project would be a direct road aiong the canal to\V ash ingtoD, thereby forming, by the aid of the Chesapeake and Ohio, a direct line to Cincinnati and the West. If Washington is reached, why nwt Baltimore by a separate line as well as by the Western Maryland? The Catonsvillc Short Line is a temptation to utilize the terminal facilities of the Northern Central at Canton. west Virginia’s coal reds.Fully two thirds of the area of West Virginia is underlaid with coal. In the Elk Garden region alone there are over one hundred million tons. In the upper Potomac region it is estimated that there arc two billions of tons. It it bituminous coal, and is adapted especially for steam and smithing purposes and cooking. This coal field is but an extension of the Appalachian coal field from Maryland. Pennsylvania and Ohio. The Potomac basin ie only a prolongation ofthe Cumberland basin.forest’s ok oak ahi spruce.After leaving Piedmont the road follows the sinuous upper Potomac along the edge of forests of spruce and hemlock, amid which, in the summer season, rhododendrons grow in profusion and gorgeous ness. In Tygart’s Valley, 70 miles from Piedmont, towering oaks are reached. All along the road are mills, the buzz of whose saws reverberates through the valleys and over the mountain sides, and whose unremittent toil is transferring the rough logs into marketable lumber. But the most valuable timber is the white spruce, which grows in inexhaustible quantities on the mountain sides. It is used in the manufacture of pulp, from which the paper on which the Sun is printed is made. It finds a ready market at the paper mills along the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, and paper mill owners, realizing the advantage of being near the source of their supplies, are‘locating factories in more accessible distance of these West Virginia spruce forests. Wilmington capitalists several months ago purchased the site of the old government armory at Harper’s Ferry, and are erecting a pulp mill to have the capacity of grinding up fifty cords of this spruce wood each day. The foundation of their big mill, near John Brown's obi fort, is already laid, and their dam is half way across the Potomac. These capitalists wish to get even nearer the forests, and only a few days ago ex-Senator Davis sold them twenty-eight acres at Piedmont as a site for a new mill. Tlic-v have one now at Harper’s Feny, which is each day grinding up thirty cords of spruce. The poplar trees, which also grow pentifull}* along the West Virginia Central, a’lffo find a market at the paper mills, where they are used in the manufacture of paper of a line grade. Cherry, birch, beech and other hard-wood t.-ees, which also abound, are sold to the furniture manufacturer. Hemlock is furnished to builders for framing purposes. This exclusive white spruce grows only among these West ^ ir-ginia mountains and in Maine. In the latter State it is being rapidly exhausted, and it is only a question of time the West Virginia forests must supply the demand for pulp, and this demand will increase in proportion with the growth of newspapers. The bark of the hemlock is used in tanning, and finds a market at Davis, where a large tannery is located.IN TYOART’S VALLEY.During the last year the road lias been extended from Thomas to Lcadsville, a distance of twenty-three miles, but tracks have only been laid to Cheat river. Just above Thomas the road enters Ty-gart Valley, which it found occupied by 8,000 people, and it will add several thousand to them. The valley is fertile, and its farmers are thrifty and industrious, and only too eager to embrace the facilities offered by the railroad to transport the products of their soil and of their hands to a profitable market. Cows and sheep graze upon the hillsidescovered with the nutritious bluegrass.Cereals grow here, too, but they are neglected for the more profitable industry of stock-raising. Oak, walnut. spruce, hemlock and other varieties of trees flourish upon the hilltops and along the banks of the streams. They await the woodman’s axe which the railroad will bring. Lcadsville is the metropolis of the valley. It is now an ordinary West Virginia village, but it is already beginning to respond to the magic touchol the railroad. It will shortly drop its conventional uame of Lcadsville, and assume that of Elkins, for Hon. .Stephen 15. Elkins, who, next to ex Senator Davis, is the most largely interested in the West Virginia Central.A COMING RAILROAD CENTER.Elkins that is to be is destined to become a railroad center of no little importance. Besides being the terminus of the West Virginia Central, it will also be the meeting place of a railroad projected southwest to Charleston, W. \ a., another westward to Buchanan, where it wili meet an offshoot of the B. and O., and still another through the northwest to Grafton, and thence to Pittsburgh, Pa. Pittsburgh capitalists are already discussing the proposed new line, and the project will take tangible shape in a short time. All these lines, like their predecessor, the Weit Virginia Central, will traverse an undeveloped country rich in coal, iron, plumbago and other deposits, as well a* a trackless forest of valuable timber.Renews Her Youth.Mrs. Phoebe ( hesley, Peterson, Ciay Co., Iowa, tells the following remarkable story, the truth of whichis vouched for by the residents of the town:*4 I am 73 years old, have been troubled with kidney complaint end lameness for many years, could not dress myself w hi thou t help. Now I am free from all pain and soreness, and am able to do my own housework, I owe ray thanks to Electric Bitters for having renewed my youth, and removed completely all disease and pain.’* Try a bottle, 50c. Drug Store.
Newspaper Details
West Virginia Democrat
Charles Town, West Virginia, US
Fri, Nov 23, 1888
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MD, USA 11 Oct 2021
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