The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1867-01-25
The Claims of Central and Southwest
ern Virginia.
Editors Hteltigencer:


Editors InteLLigeHcer:
Central and Southwestern Virginia
have been shamefully neglected by the
old State of Virginia, and there seems
to be n disposition on the part of some
people on and north of the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad, to pursue the same
course toward the same sections of our
new State.
The northern portion of West Vir-
ginia hns never had any great reason to
complain of neglect, as it has been trav-
ersed by hundreds of miles of railroad
for years, and thousands of miles of
turnpike road, many of which are well
macadamized. consequently the people
have grown rich, and towns and vi1nges
have sprung up among their hills and
valleys,
Why is it that the southern portion
of West Virginia has been so much neg
lected? Surely it is not for the want of
natural resources, of which she has
enough to build an empire.
The central and southern portion of
our State is one continuous coal field OF
superior quality and eXhaustless guam
tity. We saw vein OF coal in the
Buckhannon valley, Upshur county,
twenty-seven feet in thickness, twelve
feet Camel and fifteen .Bituminous ;be-
sides there are many thinner veins to
be found in the same valley; also rich
and heavy beds OF iron ore.
In the great Kanawha Valley there
are veins of coal underlying the whole
country, both camel and bituminous,
from seven to thirteen feet in thickness.
In the counties of Barbour, Randolph,
UpShur, PocahontaS, Webster, Nicho-
las, Greenbrier, Fayette and Monroe, the
blue grass grows in great abundance,
and especially is this the case in the
Greenbrier valley, which makes it the
best stock growing portion of the State,
while all the mountains abound in iron
ore.
/ Timber also abounds throughout the
same sections in the greatest variety
and abundance, and ofsuperior quality.
These vast internal resources can
never be reached and developed, and
converted to the uses for which the
Great Creator designed them, except
by railroad.
All the cereals adapted to the various
climates of the United States, can be
grown with remunerative success in
southwestern Virginia. 1t is unsurpass-
ed as fruit county, being adapted to
apples, peaches, pears, grapes, sc. Flax,
| hemp and sugar cane grow luXuriant-
ly, and the writer has in his possession IA
hne specimen of cotton. grown in
Wayne county, West Virginia.
Shall the hidden treasures of Central
and Southwestern Virginia remain
neglected and undeveloped or will
the Legislature locate the "Agricultur-
al College" and the Capital south of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroads, and
| thus inducs men of money, enterprise
and energy to invest in and deveIope
the vast resources of this section
There are greater facilities for water
power in the southern half of West
Virginia than in any one State in the
| Union.
There are four points spoken of and
stouuy claiming the permanent loca-
ton OF the Capital, Charleston on the
| kanawha river, is Il beautiful location
situated on navigable stream sixty
miles from the Ohio river and about
the same distance from the geographic
cal centre Of the State, and will be of
easy access after the completion of the
West Virginia Central Railroad and the
Covington and Ohio Railroad.
Buckhannon would be a most beau
/ tiful location for the Capital situated
about fifty miles from the centre of
the State in the midst of vast region
of coal, iron and other minerals There
are sxhaustless quarTies ofthe very best
building stone on the surface of the
earth near the proposed location of the
Capital buildings.
Clarksburg is a rough, billy place,
and about seventy miles from the CEN
| tire OF the State.
Grafton, the other proposed site for
the seat OF government of oar new COM
monwealth, Is about eighty miles from
the centre of the State, but more desi-
rable than ClarksbuTg, because at the
Junction of railroad, and if the Central
| w. Va. railway, also the Monongalia
andLewisburg railroad were completed
the people of southern and central
West Virginia would not feel so much
aggrieved at the location OF the capital
on the line OF the Baltimore and ohio
Ohio Railroad.
To locate the Capital of the State
north OF BucShannon would certainly
be unjust and unwise, TO say the least
OF It, and especially would 1t be uugen-
srous and wrong, unless the West Vir-
GINA Central railway were completed so
as 10 enable the people to reach the cap
ital. The people in the Southwestern
/ portion Of the State would rather defer
the permanent location of the capital
than see it north of Buckhannon, for.
once this railroad is made the
beautiful table lands OF Webster or
Nicholas counties would be the central
point for the location of the capital and
also the natural crossing of rsiIroaJs
East and West, North and South
Then If the Capital of the State ia IN
De located of the railroad. let n hs
q xed near the centre.
The southwestern portion of the