Welsh of Harpers Ferry

Evidence Category: The Shepherdstown Register

  • A Narrow Escape, Knott, Hoffmaster.

    Mrs. Samuel Knott and Mrs. James Hoffmaster, of the vicinity of Moler’s Cross Roads, had a very narrow escape from death or serious injury last Saturday afternoon. They were driving to town in a stick wagon, and just as they were about to cross the rail road track on High street, a locomotive running backward, with Engineer Buck Clingan at the throttle, came along. The horse’s head was over the track when the tender of the engine struck him and threw him into the ditch alongside the track. The wagon was tilted, but was not upset, nor were the ladies hurt, although they were frightened pretty badly. Engineer Clingan stopped his locomotive almost immediately, and was a good deal relieved to find the damage so slight. The horse had gotten to his feet and found to be little the worse for his upset. The shafts were broken from the wagon and a basket of eggs had formed a large-sized omelette, but every one was thankful that such a lucky escape had been made.

  • Ore Bank vs. Harpers Ferry Pulp

    Important Case Decided.
    In the United States Court in Martinsburg last Saturday in the case of the Harper’s Ferry pulp company against Joseph E. Thropp, etc., Judge Jackson gave a decision in favor of the pulp company. This is the suit in which the pulp company sought to prevent Mr. Thropp, who is owner of the Virginia ore bank, from polluting the Potomac river by the washings of the ore. A temporary injunction was granted against Thropp by Judge Jackson last January. On Saturday Judge Jackson made the temporary injunction permanent, and the owners of the ore bank prohibited forever from polluting the waters of the Potomac river. They will be prevented from continuing their work unless they construct settling pools in which to settle the water before running it into the river. Forrest W. Brown, Daniel B. Lucas and James D. Butt, of Jefferson county represented the plaintiff in the case, and R. T. Barton, of Winchester, and Cleon Moore, of Charles Town, represented the defendant. Just what effect the decision will have upon the industry at the ore bank is not known. It is to be hoped that it will not cause abandonment of the work.

  • Activity at the Quarries.

    Signs multiply that the stone quarry industry in this county has reached a new era of prosperity, with the assurance that this condition will continue indefinitely. New quarries are being opened and the old ones being operated with greater forces of men.

    The terms of the lease from the O. J. Keller Lime Company to the Southern Limestone Company, a subsidiary of the Cambria Steel Company, of Johnstown, Pa., were made known this week, when the lease was filed for record in the county clerk’s office. The Keller company, by the lease, grants to the Southern company the quarry rights on a farm of 156 acres, at Engle’s, this county, getting a royalty of two cents for each long ton of stone taken out. The Southern Limestone Company is to pay an annual minimum royalty of $2,500 a year for a term of twenty-five years. The Keller company reserves the right to farm all the land not occupied by the quarries. Alfred Slater, the manager of the Southern Limestone Company, informed the Advocate that he expected to employ about 300 men at the Keller plant when operations get in full blast this summer.

    A similar lease was taken by George W. Johnston, of Newcastle, Pa., who is said to represent the United States Steel Corporation, on the farm of B. F. Moler at Millville. Mr. Johnston’s company will pay a royalty of two cents on each ton of 2,240 pounds of stone, with a minimum of $400 per year. The company is under contract to begin operations not later than May 15th.

    The quarries at Bakerton are witnessing the greatest activity in their history. At present about 400 men are employed there, the largest number since operations started twenty-five years ago. Only a few days ago the company made a voluntary advance in the wages of the men. The wages of kiln fireman were increased from $1.50 to $1.60 a day. Other men about the kiln have had their wages advanced from $1.35 to $1.50. In the quarries, the rate for truck loaders was advanced from 16 to 19 cents per truck.

    Touched by the new life that affects the stone industry, the Virginia ore bank on the river, near Bakerton, is to be revived. Work is being done preparatory to opening the ore mine and the shipment of ore to the furnaces at Everett, Pa., will be resumed. — Advocate.

  • Antietam City, 1890

    The Hagerstown Daily News says that Mr. Slaymaker, chief engineer, with a corps of assistants, arrived in Hagerstown on Monday, reported to Col. W. F. M. McCarty, and in the afternoon proceeded to Shenandoah Junction to survey the site of the future Antietam City, and to locate a mammoth steel plant and other works to employ 3,000 people.

    The syndicate that has purchased the land at that place intend to build a model city. The streets are to be 100 feet wide, macadamized and sewered. Electric lights will be put in and it is said that the Holly system of waterworks will be used to be bring water from the Potomac for all purposes.

    The prospectus of the place, with maps, etc., will be issued at an early date. The first sale of lots will take place early in January, and those who are interested are confident in their assertions that Antietam City will have the largest boom along the whole line.

  • The Virginia Ore Bank, and another.

    A mile northeast of Bakerton, on a continuation of the branch railroad, is another busy scene at the Virginia ore bank. The books at Antietam Furnace show that over a hundred years ago the deposit of iron ore at this place had attracted the attention of manufacturers, who had worked even before that upon this valuable vein. But it has never yielded as much ore as it does now, one reason being because the methods of digging and handling it are so greatly improved. For fourteen years this property was lying idle. A year or two ago, after it had become the property of Mr. Thomas W. Ahl, it was again opened up, and now that the railroad has reached it there is no question as to its future. Mr. Ahl owns 96 acres of land here, and it is estimated that 55 acres of it contain the iron ore. The vein is practically inexhaustible.

    Mr. W. C. Foreman, an experienced miner, is superintendent of the works. Under his management everything moves along smoothly and systematically. About 25 men are employed. The ore, which comprises almost the entire hill, is easily mined. It is loaded into small cars, drawn by steam up an inclined plane, dumped into the big washer, the dirt and refuse cleaned out, then drawn again into cars, which are pulled up to a platform along the railroad, and the ore is finally dumped into the cars. In former years the ore was raked out from the earth with iron rakes, and only about half of it was secured, while the rest went into the dump heap.

    About fifty-five tons of ore is shipped daily– some days two cars and some days three. It goes mostly to Baltimore, but also supplies a furnace at Dunbar, Pa. The ore is a neutral hematite, and Mr. Foreman, who has had 24 years’ experience in this business, says that it is the best he has ever handled. The demand is greater than the present capacity of the works, and Mr. Foreman told the REGISTER man that plans are being arranged for a vast improvement and enlargement of machinery. A new inclined plane will be built, and it is hoped that work will be found for two hundred men. There’s no doubt that there is plenty of ore there for any number of men to work at for any number of years. One breast of the vein has been worked up to a height of 88 feet, and there’s no telling how much deeper it goes. Most of the employees live across the river in Maryland, but it is likely that a number of new houses will be built on Mr. Ahl’s land for their accommodation.

    The works at the ore bank are of benefit to Shepherdstown in a business sense, as Mr. Foreman buys most of his supplies here.

    ANOTHER ORE BANK

    Mr. Jacob S. Moler’s farm adjoins the above place, and so the REGISTER man dropped in on his old friend and got a most excellent dinner. Mr. Moler has plenty of the same sort of iron ore on his place. In fact, the bank was at one time in successful operation, though it was afterward closed on account of various circumstances. But there is ore and plenty of it. All you have to do is take a pick and dig into the ground, and out rolls the ore. Several Baltimore capitalists were there last week and made an examination of the old mine. They were greatly pleased, and will probably lease the place and begin operations in the near future. Mr. Moler, we hope, will realize handsomely on his property.

    Take it all in all, there is a genuine boom down in that neighborhood. Business is already brisk. But in two or three years more some of the older towns will have to look to their laurels, unless all present signs fail.

  • Ore Bank & Iron Works, Thropp

    Joseph E. Thropp, owner of the Virginia ore bank, along the Potomac river east of town, bought two parcels of land, comprising 153 3-4 acres, being a part of the Antietam Iron Works property, on the Maryland side of the river. He paid $2,000 for it. Many years ago the ore from the Virginia ore bank was manufactured into iron products at the Antietam Iron Works, but the plant at the latter place has long since been demolished.

  • The News of the Railroads, 1890

    The News of the Railroads.

    A general complaint in the business world for the past three months— or at least that part of it interested in shipping freights on the railroads— has been the scarcity of freight cars. ALl the roads in this section have the question to contend with. Here at Shepherdstown our grain dealers are put to their wits’ end for transportation facilities. The Shenandoah Valley officials when appealed to say that they have given Shepherdstown the preference over many other places, and state that do what they can they are unable to provide enough cars. The Potomac Cement Mill has been piled full of cement, and a few weeks ago it would have been shut down had not the pressure been relieved by Mr. Cook, who managed to furnish enough cars to carry a part of the accumulation off. Efforts to get coal from the West Virginia Central and Baltimore & Ohio Railroad reveal the fact that they are also hard up for cars and utterly unable to meet the demand. It looks as though the railroad business is growing.

    A joint meeting of the Shenandoah Valley and of the Washington and Western Railroads was held in Alexandria last week, when the two roads were consolidated and reorganized under the name of Shenandoah Valley Railroad Company. Mr. F. J. Kimball was elected president. The committee which purchased the Shenandoah Valley Road in Roanoke in September last then conveyed that road to the new company. Of course the Norfolk and Western will control the new organization, but it will allow it to have a separate name.

    There is more or less talk, in a quiet way, of a Washington or Baltimore extension of the West Virginia Central. This company cannot get the canal, but it is pretty certain it will not rest at Cumberland on that account. It is bound to get to tidewater. Whether it will go to Baltimore or Washington is a question of great importance to this section. If is shall go to Washington it is probable that Shepherdstown and Jefferson county will be on the route. An old survey proposed a road from Harper’s Ferry along the river westward, passing right through Shepherdstown, and it is said that the route was a remarkably short one. If we should have a competing line here the benefit to our community would be incalculable. We hope it may come.

    The officials of the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, replying to an inquiry of the Postoffice Department in regard to increasing the mail facilities over the line, stated recently that it is more than probable that the Shenandoah and Hagerstown accommodation train will be withdrawn during the winter. We hope such shall not be the case. This train is a sure enough “accommodation” to the people along the line, and we think the superintendent will keep it on if he can be satisfied that the patrons of the road want it pretty badly.

    Capt. McClellan, of the Shenandoah Valley, is so tall now that he has to stoop when he enters a car door— all on account of a nine-pound boy. Pat Crow measured the Captain the other day and he had gained 19 7/8 inches in height. Capt. Cord has bought the little railroader a train of toy cars for a Christmas gift, Capt. Calder gives him a hobby horse, while Capt. Hilleary has bought him a lot in Hagerstown’s boom. All the fellows will make suitable contributions, including a live monkey from Capt. Hutchings.

    Mr. Charles Hodginson, a B. & O. brakeman who lives with his family near Shenandoah Junction, was caught between the cars at Riverside Station last Monday and very badly crushed. His wife went down on Tuesday to care for him.

    The new schedule of the B. & O. Railroad may be found in this issue. There are several changes in the list of trains stopping at Shenandoah Junction.

  • Shenandoah Junction’s Boom.

    The boom at Shenandoah Junction, or, as it is to be known in the future, Antietam City, is a go. A representative of the REGISTER visited that place on Tuesday, and from Col. Chas. T. Hood, the manager, gained the information hereinafter set forth.

    As is well known, Shenandoah Junction is near the centre of Jefferson county, West Virginia, where the Shenandoah Valley Railroad, a through line North and South, crosses the main line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, the great trunk line East and West. It is really an ideal location for a manufacturing town. Jefferson county is full of iron ore, the celebrated Virginia Ore Bank being only about six miles distant by rail from Shenandoah Junction, and the great coal fields of Maryland and West Virginia lying within a hundred miles, to say nothing of the other resources that such splendid railroad facilities make near neighbors.

    The Antietam Manufacturing and Land Improvement Company is at the head of the movement. This corporation has been chartered by our State authorities, the following officers being named: B. R. Hutchcraft, Knoxville, Tenn., president; W. F. M. McCarty, Hagerstown, Md., vice-president; Edward M. Mealey, Hagerstown, Md., treasurer; Coleman Rogers, secretary. The capital stock is $1,000.00, divided into 10,000 shares of $100 each. This stock is now on the market. When $50 has been paid on a share the holder will receive a paid-up certificate for $100. The first payment per share is $20, and each sixty days thereafter $10 until the $50 is paid.

    A few months ago, Col. Hood appeared at Shenandoah Junction and started the work of securing options. He was successful in a marked degree, for he has obtained over a thousand acres of land, in form almost a perfect square, at prices ranging from $100 to $250 per acre, as follows: From R. W. Morrow (the old Neill farm), 150 acres; James W. McGarry, 67 acres; Joseph Engle, about 75 acres; John D. McGarry, 33 acres; Jacob Snyder, about 80 acres; J. W. Barringer, 44 acres; Charles Aglioby, 270 acres; Jacob S. Melvin, 220 acres; Olin Beall, 110 acres; George Harris, 1 acre; John Hill, 6 1/2 acres; John Link, 9 acres. This great tract of land extends along the B. & O. and S. V. Railroads for nearly a mile and a-half each way and on both sides of both roads. The engineers are now making the surveys– a pretty big piece of work, by the way.

    Now as to what sort of a town is proposed: The Antietam Company has issued its prospectus, in which it says that it will build up “a solid, compact town, with first-class modern conveniences.” The streets are to be wide avenues well macadamized and paved, with a fine sewe[?]age. Gas and electric light plants will be provided for illuminating purposes. Waterworks are to be constructed upon the Holly system. The supply will be taken from the Potomac river and conducted to the new city by a pipe line about five miles in length. It is probable that the pumping apparatus, standpipe, etc., will be located at Shepherdstown, if present plans are carried out. This place offers many advantages, as it is on an air-line from river to city, and the dam below town makes a natural reservoir that would always be available. The company will spend $60,000 on this work.

    The Antietam Company says it will put up a mammoth steel plant with a capacity of three hundred tons of merchantable steel per day, the value of which per diem at the mills will be $12,000. It is designed to employ 2,500 laborers, most of them skilled workmen, with a daily pay roll of $5,000. A second plant will be associated industry for working up a part of the steel output– say a hundred and fifty tons a day– into a new product called Russian sheet steel, an article designed to take the place of tin in many of the domestic and business uses, and to which it is said to be superior. It is expected this enterprise will employ at the start 1,000 men. The third industry will be a plant for processing, by lining or covering, or both, all sorts of iron pipe, plates, etc. About 500 men will be required for this work. In addition to the above industries, a number of lesser ones have been already secured, it is claimed, to say nothing of the inevitable influx of minor establishments that follows such a movement. A hotel to cost $35,000 is to be built at once.

    The Antietam Company will utilize 840 acres of the land for town purposes. Of this a hundred acres will be given for sites of manufactories. Forty acres now in timber will be reserved as a park. The remaining 700 acres will be cut up into lots–400 acres in eighteen thousand business lots and 300 acres into eighteen hundred residence lots. The company also owns a thousand acres of mineral lands in addition to the above described property, and a hundred acres of marble and cement lands.

    The above are the facts concerning Antietam City as they have been given to us. Considering all the advantages of the place– its great rail, road facilities, its splendid location at the entrance of the Shenandoah Valley, its salubrious climate, its elevated and well-drained land, its nearness to raw materials and markets for manufactured goods— we leave it to our readers whether or not the company’s claim that they will in the near future have a thriving town of 20,000 inhabitants is well founded.

    Even at this early stage there are indications that Shenandoah Junction is wakening up, as the following notes will show.

    The Norfolk and Western Railroad has bought two lots at the northwest angle of the Shenandoah Valley and Baltimore & Ohio Railroads, and as it is just the place for a new station the presumption is that that’s what it was bought for. Perhaps it will be a union station for the use of both roads jointly.

    Mr. Alex L. Osbourn has just built himself a very handsome Gothic cottage on a lot adjoining the above, just west of the S. V. railroad, facing the county road.

    The steam planing mill and blacksmith shop of Blackford Bros. are in full operation at this place now. The firm is composed of the four brothers, J. W., J. Y., J. H., and O. J. Blackford, Mr. J. Yancey Blackford is general manager. This firm manufactures dressed lumber of all kinds, builds wagons, carts, wheelbarrows, etc., and does a general repair business. Its shops are fitted up with everything needful, including lathes, drillpress, etc. The firm is now filling a contract for the lumber for a new colored Methodist church at Kearneysville, and will furnish 15,000 pins for the use of the surveyors now at work in the vicinity.

    A branch of the Southern Building and Loan Association has been established, with the following officers: J. C. Tabler, President; A. C. Drawbaugh, secretary and treasurer; T. C. Grove, vice president; the directors, besides the officers, are N. S. J. Strider, J. D. Derr, and Lewis Hawling.

    Mr. A. C. Drawbaugh, who is also a notary public, is the first man to go into the real estate brokerage business.

    Mr. I. W. Williams keeps a large general merchandise store at the Junction, and Mr. J. T. Hagley sells groceries, etc. Mr. L. S. Williams has a monopoly of the grain and coal business. Mr. W. M. Morrison runs the hotel of the place, while Pleasant Johnson, the colored caterer, keeps one eye open toward Richmond while he watches his restaurant with the other.

    The boom hasn’t quite reached Brown’s Crossing, but nevertheless this village is improving, too. Comfortable new dwelling-houses have just been erected by Messrs. Joseph and Ellis Bell, and the saw and grist mills of Mr. J. H. Thompson still grinds on in its old fashioned honest way. Mr. Geo. W. Boyer may also be found ready for business in his wagon-maker’s shop, while his son, Mr. John G. Boyer, looks after the blacksmith department. Mr. Geo. W. Boyer is one of the John Brown jurymen, and despite the predictions of the early deaths of all on that famous jury, he is still hale and hearty and more vigorous than many a younger man. He carries on the huckstering business regularly, in addition to his wagonmaker’s shop, and bids fair to live many busy years yet.

    To Col. Hood, manager of the Antietam Company, and Mr. William Butler, and to other citizens of that section, the REGISTER man is deeply obligated for favors shown.

  • Moler searching for Ore.

    Mr. Charles B. Moler has been sinking a number of shafts in his field near the Virginia Ore Bank for the purpose of locating a vein of the iron ore that is so plentiful in that locality.

  • Bakerton, 1892 Report

    COMMUNICATED.
    Bakerton, W. Va. February 2, 1892

    DEAR EDITOR– As your correspondent, with many others of this community, has been so unfortunate as to have the grippe, you have had no news from this section for some time, and as this is a dull season of the year there is not much that can be said that would be interesting to your readers.

    A report that a railroad would soon be run from the Old Furnace up the river to the old Adams stone quarry, thence to the Virginia Ore Bank, and probably on to Shepherdstown, is current, and much discussed among the people of this section. Whether there is any truth in said report I cannot say, but do not doubt that it has some foundation.

    The people here look forward to next spring as being a busy one, with the limestone quarry, and kilns here in full blast and the Virginia Ore Bank, Messrs. Knott’s and Flanagan’s quarries, each about a mile from here, doing the same. Nothing more can be expected with so many hands, and lots of work to do. The greatest problem to be solved, likely, will be where to get enough hands for so much work. The farmer, who seems to be always with his shoulder to the wheel, will likely be compelled to keep it there, as they will no doubt experience most trouble in this respect.

    Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Strider, probably the oldest residents of Bakerton, have been quite ill with the grippe, but at present writing seem to be much improved under the skilled treatment of Dr. A. S. Reynolds, of your town.

    Mr. J. Y. Blackford, of Shenandoah Junction, and Mr. L. D. Engle, of Keller, were in town last night, we presume on business, but dare not so state positively.