USA > West Virginia > Preston County > A History of Preston County, West Virginia, V.1 > Part 20
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Revenue laws and other influences brought about the closing of the stills, and the growing of rye almost wholly ceased. The economic causes we have elsewhere sketched caused a rapid decline in flax cul- ture after the year 1850, and within 20 more years it had become totally extinct. On the other hand, the adaptability of the county to grazing, and the fact that cattle could walk to their market, caused the breeding and marketing of them to become the leading farm industry, with mut- ton and wool as an important adjunct. When a railroad outlet had come
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PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
into operation, it brought into prominence the buckwheat crop, the con- ditions of climate and soil being very favorable to this product. The output of dairy products and poultry has always been large, but for a long while the ruling prices were low.
During the Transition Period, the surplus products of the farm, aside from livestock, were chiefly buckwheat, hay, poultry, butter, and fruits. Yet the excess of hay was small and chiefly from the Highland. Aside from buckwheat, the income from the other items was small, and the surplus of the orchard rotted on the ground.
The Industrial Period has brought a noticeable element of change. There was now a large demand for hay and for the minor products of the farm, and an improved demand for the output of the orchard and garden. On the other hand, the growing of the large staples, with the exception of hay and buckwheat, became relatively less advantageous, and this condition became more pronounced through the heavy shrink- age in the supply of farm labor. The wheat grower was now at an in- creased disadvantage in competing with the prairie farmer, while his hay, buckwheat, and potatoes had become more profitable than ever. The direction of the readjustment is toward intensive methods, with a concentration of effort on those products which under the new condi- tions the county can most advantageously supply.
A comparison of the more prominent agricultural data in the cen- sus returns of 1850 and 1900 will be of some interest. The former year was just prior to the arrival of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad. The latter year came while the Industrial Period was yet in its infancy. It is to be borne in mind that the population at the later date was twice what it was at the earlier :
Wheat, bushels
1850
36,769
1900
73,490
Rye, bushels
20,502
"
.....
Corn, bushels
144,276
315,460
Oats, bushels
153,496
259,890
Buckwheat, bushels
28,283
120,490
Hay, tons
7,765
25,383
Wool, pounds
43,907
"
112,820
Flax, pounds
25,450
......
"
21,768
Honey, pounds
18,445
(value)
$ 61,840
Butter, pounds
179,836
184,100
Poultry
84,531
Orchard products
$ 2,041
95,812
Livestock
279,619
993,954
Machinery
58,588
237,810
Market gardens
463
.
"
",
Maple sugar, pounds
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PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
The story of Preston manufactures is not a long tale, if we ex- clude the industries formerly carried on in the private homes or in little workshops, and also those which from the nature of the case are inti- mately associated with mining. The more pretentious industries began to rise toward the middle of the last century, and in 1860 their output was given as $20,088 in value.
The tanning industry, once quite prominent, especially at the An- nan tannery on Roaring Creek, has for a long while been wholly extinct, and the making of shooks, once so vigorously prosecuted by New Eng- land men, ceased in 1874. The sawing of lumber became particularly active after the arrival of the Industrial Period, but is largely carried on in a migratory manner by means of the portable steam mill. In several of the towns are planing mills, and in Terra Alta locust pins are manu- factured. But while the marketing of sawed lumber and of unwrought timber products has been so active as to cause very heavy inroads on the forested lands, there has been no serious effort to manufacture fin- ished products.
The sheep business early drew attention to the weaving of woolen cloth on a commercial scale. The pioneer was John W. Rigg, who be- gan operations at Muddy Creek in 1844, using a log building, in which he installed two roll cards, two hand looms, and a 50-spindle jenny. The business grew, and in 1869 a three-storied building was erected. This burned a few years since, but was promptly replaced with a modernized and more commodious structure, which claims to be the best equipped mill in the state. The business is now carried on by an incorporated company. Mr. Rigg withdrew from Muddy Creek and built a factory at Terra Alta, which was the largest in West Virginia. Its daily out- put was 500 to 800 yards. With respect to fire it has been unfortunate, having twice burned to the ground. The last fire was of recent date and the proprietors have not rebuilt.
Meanwhile a woolen factory was built at Bruceton about 1850, an- other at Evansville at a similar date, and a third at Eglon. The first has been silent many years and the second was ruined by flood in 1907. In 1904 the four surviving mills contained about 30 looms and 1,644 spin- dles, and had a daily consumption of about 860 pounds of washed wool, nearly one-half being of domestic growth. The number of employees was about 70. Blankets, flannels, and skirtings figure very prominently in the classes of goods woven. All these mills were employing steam power.
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PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
Perhaps the last of the Preston distilleries was the one near Bran- donville, which succumbed to the fire fiend in 1886 with a loss of $4,000. A much more innocent form of distillation was carried on at Laurel Run in 1874, where Frank Wolfe produced 10,000 pounds of wintergreen ex- tract.
Several of the better situated of the old water gristmills are still in operation and have modernized their equipments. The flouring busi- ness is most active at Terra Alta, that point being the leading buckwheat market of the county.
Manufacturing in Preston will doubtless receive further develop- ment, though only on the lines laid down by the natural conditions. The swift mountain streams would turn many a wheel, but unfortunately the supply of water is subject to great fluctuation, and the contour of the region is not favorable to the economical impounding of water by means of reservoirs. But on the other hand, the supply of domestic coal and coke is ample for the largest factories.
As already recorded, iron was made in the west of Grant during the 30's and the raw material was sent down the Monongahela. In 1853, the Virginia furnace on Muddy Creek was built, and it was operated until 1880, the output being hauled to Terra Alta. In 1859, George Hardman began a furnace at Irondale (naw Victoria), but fell into financial embarrassment. Colonel DeNemegyei. a gentleman of Hun- garian birth, succeeded Hardman, and prosecuted operations on a much larger scale. In the early 90's he, too, became involved, and after sev- eral years of idleness the furnace that had cost $350,000 and had a daily capacity of 35 tons of metal was torn down, and even the spur from the main line of the railroad was demolished. In 1872 Mr. Hardman begun work at Gladesville, and iron was made there until 1881. The early fur- naces in Grant did not make furnace iron, and the article produced at Gladesville was "cold-short," and therefore brittle. All these furnaces used charcoal, but the larger one at Irondale used its own coke. With the shutting down of the last-named furnace, the smelting of iron ore ceased in Preston, and although there was no exhaustion of deposits containing as high as 50 percent of metal, it is not probable that there will be any resumption very soon.
In the early days of the iron industry many acres were stripped of their trees for the making of charcoal. A spot sixty feet in diamater would be cleared out. This was covered with logs set on end, and these were buried under a coating of leaves and earth. After the process of slow combustion was complete, the charcoal would preserve the forms
2
201
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
of the original logs. Charcoal iron is of superior quality, but coke is now generally used in the smelting of the ores.
The record of the coal and coke industry is quite different. A coal mine was opened near Newburg in 1855, and bought out the next year by the Orrel Coal Company, with Lawrence Henry as superintendent. The heaviest operations were on Sand Ridge, which was renamed Scotch Hill, because of the Scotch workmen who labored in the mines. The track to the railroad at Newburg included an incline 2,100 feet in length. The coal was of the fine Pittsburg seam and of limited area. Yet 4,900,000 tons were taken from the hilltop without quite exhausting the deposit. After some 35 years of operation, the mine was closed and the works dismantled. From the scarred plateau a subterranean fire has since been emitting smoke and thus completing the destruction of the vein. In the valley at Newburg the same company operated another mine and some ovens, but these were discontinued in the 90's and lay idle a number of years.
A mine at Austin was opened in 1866, has been prosecuted quite continuously, and has been a heavy producer of coal and coke. Other mines were opened on the east and west sides of Tunnel Hill, at T'un- nelton and West End, and at Irondale and also Corinth.
When the Industrial Period began, the mines at Austin, Tunnel- ton, West End, and Corinth were still at work, but the small area af- fected by the industry and its comparatively small dimensions had not imparted an impress to the county that was very pervading. There was now a rapid expansion. Mining was resumed at Newburg and Irondale, and new mines were opened on Raccoon Creek above New- burg, and at Howesville, Irona, Atlantic, Masontown, Bretz, and King- wood, until there were at length 21 mines employing, in 1908, 1.741 workmen. The output for the year 1907 was 1,079,692 tons.
Since 1898, with its output of nearly 169,044 tons, there has been a rapid and almost uninterrupted increase in coal mining. For the de- cade 1899-1908, the aggregate production was 6,252,276 tons.
As the coal industry is destined to still further growth, it will henceforward give complexion to the industrial interests of this county.
A huge cement plant has for several years been in operation at Manheim, two miles below Rowlesburg, where in the face of the river hill is an immense deposit of cement rock.
Brickmaking on a merchantable scale has chiefly been conducted at Corinth.
202
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
At the east end of the railroad bridge at Rowlesburg is a quarry of bluestone, which is a superior building material and is also finely adapted to paving.
Nearly opposite Manheim is the plant of the Standard Lime and Stone Company, where a large force is employed in making ballast for the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.
Close to Kingwood, a very extensive and important bed of quartz- ite is being developed for export as well as local use. It is of a warm yellow hue, is unaffected by gases, and does not stain. It has a tensile strength of over 10,00 pounds to the square inch, and being meta- morphic, it does not disintegrate by scaling. Its strength and durability cause it to be well adapted to bridge work, and it is now being used for architectural purposes in the city of New York and elsewhere.
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PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
CHAPTER XXIII
TURNPIKES AND RAILROADS
A Problem in Transportation - The National Road - The Northwestern Pike - The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad - The Kingwood Tunnel - Description of the Railroad Route - Changes Wrought by It - Local Railroad Projects . The West Virginia Northern - The Morgantown and Kingwood - The New Kingwood Tunnel.
A century ago the more progressive countries of Western Europe were being covered with a network of of superb highways. In England these improved thoroughfares are profoundly associated with the names of Telford and McAdam. The railroad was not yet in sight, unless to men of exceptional forecast. But the macadamized highway was itself a vast improvement over the wretched roads which had hitherto been almost universal.
America, a new, poor, and thinly peopled country, was less able to build such roads than was Europe. Yet relatively, the need was greater here than there. It was costing too much to haul goods a longer distance than 150 miles. A ton of merchandise could be brought from Liverpool to Philadelphia for $9, the distance being over 3,000 miles across the Atlantic. And yet it cost an equal amount to haul a ton 20 miles over the miserable highways of America. It was costing $2.50 to haul a bushel of salt 300 miles, and twice that sum to haul a hundred weight of sugar. The cost of moving a ton of freight between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh was $125.
A century ago there was consequently a rage for building pikes in America. In one particular, the need of them was exceedingly urgent.
If East and West were to be kept from falling apart, it became a measure of sound public policy to overcome the mountain barrier with a road as good as might be found in Europe. This had to be a national undertaking, since it was in the interest of the whole country.
Washington had discerned this need very clearly. Yet the first man to work out the problem in detail .was Albert Gallatin. This eminent statesman, a native of Switzerland and knowing good roads from personal acquaintance, lived no more than a half-day's walk from the northwest corner of Preston. A more widely known champion of the enterprise was Henry Clay, who as a resident of what was then called
204
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
a Western state, was throughly alive to its necessity. In 1811 work was begun, and in 1818 the completed road was open to the public. Its length from Cumberland to Wheeling was 131 miles, and the cost was nearly $13,000 a mile. The driveway was 60 feet across and eight vehicles could travel abreast. The stage coach made eleven miles an hour and occasionally sixteen miles.
As illustrating the commercial necessity of this thoroughfare, it may be mentioned that in 1817 goods to the value of $3,500,000 were stored at Pittsburgh to await their opportunity to go down the Ohio. The cost of transporting these goods from the coast was ten percent of their value.
"From 1818 until 1852," says Searight, "the National Road was the one great highway over which passed the bulk of trade and travel and also the mails between the East and the West. As many as 20 four-horse coaches have been counted in line at one time on the road, and large, broad-wheeled wagons, covered with white canvas stretched over bows, laden with merchandise and drawn by six Conestoga horses, were visible all the day long at every point, and many times until late in the evening, besides innumerable caravans of horses, mules, cattle, hogs, and sheep. It looked more like the leading avenue of a great city than a road through rural districts."
Since the busy thoroughfare passed only three miles from the north- west corner of Preston, the district of Grant was exceptionally favored among American communities. It was for years the most populous and prosperous of the subdivisions of Preston. The many taverns on the great pike afforded a near market for all manner of farm produce. Brandonville speedily became the metropolis of our county and remained such at least thirty years.
The golden age of the National Road lasted until 1852. The Baltimore and Ohio Railway then reached the Ohio River at the same point with the pike. It was indeed a "deadly parallel," for the highway of stone immediately sucumbed to its invincible rival. In a brief while it sank to the status of a common road and such it still remains. The massive stone bridges endure, but the roadbed has sadly deteriorated.
The north of Preston thus received an industrial blow from which it has never fully recovered. From a busy commercial point. Brandon- ville, retrograded until it became one of the least of the villages of the county.
The success of the National Road stimulated Virginia to do livewise. In 1827 her General Assembly incorporated the Northwestern Road Company, and it was to organize at Kingwood as soon as one-fifth of
205
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
the authorized capital had been subscribed. But until 1831 the enterprise was not well managed. It was then placed in charge of the Board of Public Works, and in seven years the road was completed to Parkers- burg, a distance of 237 miles from the starting point at Winchester.
The Northwestern Pike enters this county a little north of Eglon, and crossing the almost level plateau of Union district, it descends in three miles to the fringe of bottom lining the Cheat. Then for about four miles it follows the river, crossing the stream midway in this distance on a covered wooden bridge costing $18,000. With many short curves the road climbs to the top of Laurel Hill, and then pursues a gentler incline to the bank of the Sandy, which stream it follows until after the county line is passed. The length of the pike within the boundaries of Preston is nearly 30 miles.
In general it was built as a "dirt road," but was broad, smooth, and well constructed, the maximum grades never being more than five degrees. Occasional places were macadamized. All streams of any importance were crossed by substantial bridges. The first expense was about $1,000 a mile, and the driveway was kept in order by a force of workmen constantly employed.
"An amount of travel passed over it," says Wiley, "which we can hardly credit today. Great numbers of travelers on foot passed and repassed over it, mail stages ran night and day, horsemen thronged it, two-horse wagons, four-horse wagons, and six-horse wagons, singly and in streams, wound up and down its hills, and every night at some point along the road was a tide of travel claiming food, drink, and shelter. The emigrant with his little all was daily pushing westward to the Ohio, to seek or to better his fortune. . Vast droves clouded and blackened it from the east to the west. Long lines of horses, flocks of sheep, and droves of hogs, intermingled with the cattle, and all worked their way slowly to the Eastern markets. Provisions and forage had to be gathered in large quantities from the surrounding country. The productions of the soil found a ready market and sold at the highest prices. Two miles apart, and sometimes for every mile-post on the road was a tavern for this great travel, with stabling, wagon-yards, and fields fenced in for droves."
Between the Maryland line and the Cheat were five taverns. The first was a stone structure about two miles east of Aurora. It was built about 1825 by Henry Grimes, and in the time of the pike it was kept as a tavern by Gerge Hauser. Hiram Hanshaw, and William H. Grimes. The next was the "Rising Sun Tavern" at a crossroads a little west of Aurora. It was kept by Major David Stemple. The third was also on the plateau, but not far from the Wolf Creek grade. This was kept by Michael Wilt and John H. Wotring. The fourth, a
206
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
drover's stand, was at the foot of the grade and on the river. It was owned by F. K. Ford. The next was the "Caledonia," near the east end of the river bridge. It was a white frame house and was at first kept as a stage stand by Charles Hooton and F. W. Deakins. In after years the Caledonia was torn down and the Rising Sun was destroyed by fire.
West of the Cheat were eight taverns. The first was but a little distance from the bridge, and was kept by Charles Hooton. The next was at the mouth of the Buffalo and was kept by a Mrs. Funk. The "Drover's Rest" was on the mountain top, and was owned by William H. Brown. The fourth, one mile beyond, was kept by John Nine, and later by Elias B. Glenn and his sons. The fifth, a fine frame building stood in Fellowsville and was built by Sylvanus Heermans. The sixth was the "Traveler's Rest," by Moses Royse, and lay between Fellows- ville and Evansville. In Evanville were two more taverns. These were kept by Wick Johnson and by a Robinett.
There were three classes of "pike men." the stage drivers, the wagoners, and the drovers. The wagoner was a "regular," if he followed the road all the time, and a "private," if he followed it only now and then. The drover usually went horseback.
There was a caste feeling among these men. The landlord of a stage-stand would not permit a wagoner to stop with him, and the wagoner in his turn would not think of lodging at a drove-stand.
The stage coach of those days had a large body supported by leather bands instead of metallic springs. It was painted in yellow and vermillion without and was plush-lined within. There were boots in front and rear as receptacles for trunks. The huge vehicle always had "room for one more," and was drawn by either four horses or six. The king of the freight wagons on this and on the National Road was the huge conestoga, costing $250. It had a bed eighteen feet long. and so deep as almost to hide a man standing within. The bed was painted a deep blue. Above was the white canvas cover and below were the broad tired wheels.
The palmy days of the Northwestern Pike continued fifteen years. Its downfall came at the same time as that of the National Road and for the same cause. It is now simply a county road and its condition is not much above the average of such. Yet it was a great and perma- nent benefit to the south of the county. When the railroad came it passed within a distance varying from ten miles to not more than
TEL
207
PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
three. Thus the interval between pike and railroad was incomparably narrower than in the case of the National Road. The greater capacity of the railroad and the towns that grew up along its course quite fully compensated the people in the south of Union and Reno for the increase in their distance to market. Consequently there was not the setback in these districts as in Grant, except with the villages of Fellowsville and Evansville, which had grown up along the pike. These were overshadowed and caused to shrink by their rivals, Tunnelton and Newburg. In the case of West Union, another pike-made village, it easily held its own by becoming a summer resort. In the later years it changed its name to Aurora.
Good wagon roads are of immense public importance, yet the grid- ironing of America with steel rails diverted a rather undue share of attention to the new and swifter means of transporting traffic. The cause of better wagon roads lay in the background until the very close of the century. But in the recent renewal of interest in this matter, it has been proposed to rebuild the National Road.
As the pioneer among the railway systems of America, the Baltimore and Ohio road is of special interest. Some of the more enterprising men of Baltimore saw that an iron highway would greatly serve the interests of their well-situated port. In 1827 they secured a state charter authorizing a capital stock of $4,000,000. The cornerstone, as it were, of the enterprise was laid July 4, 1828, by the venerable Charles Carroll, the only surviving signer of the Declaration of Indepen- dence. He was then eighty-eight years of age. But for a while progress was slow. In four years the road had only reached Point of Rocks on the Potomac, 69 miles from Baltimore. Railroad engineering was a science yet to be learned, and the earlier railways were faultily constructed. For three years horses were used to pull the cars, and for a while longer, the first locomotives were not run by night. The first iron horse was the "York," which weighed three and one-half tons and drew a load of fifteen tons at the speed of twenty miles an hour.
It was not until 1850 that the rails were laid to Cumberland. Even when the track had been brought to the summit of Backbone Mountain, the dividing ridge of the Alleghanies, it was doubted by many of the experts whether a load of any size could be drawn up the grade of more than 100 feet to the mile. But a test was successful, and the further progress of the road was assured.
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PRESTON COUNTY, WEST VIRGINIA
The surveying of the actual line through Preston was done in 1847, although several years earlier a route across the north of the county had been examined. It was the original purpose of the railroad authorities to use approximately the same course as the National Road, but the fierce opposition of the pike prevented favorable action by the legislature of Pennsylvania.
The track was completed to the Cheat River on Christmas Day in 1851. So much speedier was now the construction that in exactly twelve more months the rails had been laid to Wheeling. For the two years beginning October 1, 1850, the cost of building the road was $7,271,732 ; an immense sum for those days. Yet the road constructed through Preston in 1851-2 was only the promise of the massive road- bed which the steady improvements of sixty years have brought about. It had a single track laid with strap-rails, and all the bridges were of wood. The rolling stock was crude in comparison with what it is now, yet a very distinct advance on what had first been used. The very first passenger car was like a market cart set on railroad wheels. The next one had leather braces like a stage coach, and it held only nine passengers.
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