Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-08-06

ASHLAND

/ Iron Interests and she Need OF
transportation Facasfties-Induce.
n,ents wayne County Holds Out "a
1 Capfteiists. p as
To the Editors of the Union and American:
ASHLAND, Wayne CO., Tenn, July 81,
1S7i.-Perhaps few items from this
secluded and comparatively unknown
| portion of the State would interest some
of your numerous readers, especially
since they have been posted to satiation
from the more prominent sections. This
unincorporated. little post village, Ash-
| land, ia situated upon an elevated fiat OF
plateau on the south bank of Buffalo
river, In the northern part of Wayne
county. 1t contains only three stores,
one grocery, shoe shop, and one ply
stefan, two churches, Masonic Hall and
| village school; hsrd by tannery, saw
and grist mills. Indeed, a pretty village,
unpretending in everything except its
name, for in that it assumes to honor the
late home of the great orator, statesman,
sage and patriot, Henry Clay. This ses
cluded portion of the State, which will
here designate ~. --.t -..s
The BUFFALO RIVER REGION,
including part of the five counties of
Lawrence, Lewis, Wayne, Perry and
Humphreys, aud lies upon the western
rim of the great basin of Middle Tennessee.
This lin, or wide range of lofty ridges,
resembles i'm many respects the Cumber-
land Mountains which form the eastern
rim of the same great basin. Buffalo
river rises upon this table-land and cuts
its channel along narrow valley exca-
waited through low mountains almost from
its source to its confluence and is unques-
tionably one of the most beautiful little
rivers IN Tennessee. Its gently murmur-
ing stream running clear and cool over a
pebbly bed, meanders out of Lawrence
into the borders of Lewis, thence into
Wayne, where its '1aughlng water" ever
sweetly huns joyous march towards
the mighty deep. Flowing westward
until just before leaving Wayne it abs
ruptly turns northward into Perry, where
its whole ordinary volume of water sinks,
finding subterranean passage near q
mile in extens beneath rock based ridge
around which the surplus water of
swell courses al open channel.
l. debouches from the earth one mile
south of Linden, and there drives an ex-
cellent merchant mill and other ma
chinery, known as the Rise Mills.
Thence flowing northward into Humph-
reys county, there empties into Duck river.
To the angler, l must say no river of
equal length can beat it for fish. To the
trapper belt known that offers and beav-
ers maybe captured here. To the sports
man l will state the fact that game
abounds in our wide, wild woods, where
the wild cat fiercely eaterwauls and
the wolf yet roams and bowls. The toot
of the huntsman's horn and the yelping
of his hounds in chase of the nimble-
footed deer are sounds most familiar here.
In the tortuous course of this rapid
stream are many good seats for cotton
factories or other machinery. But ia the
absence of such works, many dams have
been erected for fish-trsps, and the roar
of rushing water resounds along the val
ley, Ginning not with the din OF busy
wheels, nor humming spindles, nor rat
fling looms.
However, one prong of this stream
drives the celebrated Laurel Hill Factory.
Here the old oyershot wheel has been
removed, and in its stead turbine wheel
of ninety six horse power is now most
satisfactorily operating.
FURNACES.
Upon Forty eight Mile Creek, q tribu.
tary of Buffalo, is situated Wayne Fur
mace, owned by T. G. Gaylord, of Gin
cinnat. II is now in full blast and turns
out abou! eighteen tons of pig iron daily.
This metal is hauled on wagons to Clifton,
q distance of twenty-one miles, thence
shipped down the Tennessee and up the
Ohio. Upon another tributary stands the
splendid furnace and forge, long ago
known as the Buffalo Iron Works, once
owned aud operated by the Catrons, more
recently rebuilt and blasted by w. G..
Napier, but now extinct for want of
facilities in transporting metal to market.
THE OLD ROUTE TO MISSISSIPPI.
Near these Works, the Old Natchez
Trace crossed Buffalo river. Many years
ago this was the great overland route
from Nashville to the lower Mississippi,
and over it was carried to an anxious
nation, the first glad tidings of victory at
New Orleans.
Its worn and well beaten track now
sparsely Oyergrown with grass is quite as
unObiiterated in places here as when its
last traveller fcIs1Ok its toilsome way for
the more comfortable and expeditions
steamboat or car, ard will long remais q
mementO of the past. In the year 1909,
Meriwe'her Lewis, the celebrated ex-
plorer of the Northwest Territory and
then Governor of Louisiana, was travel
ing this highway, with two or three at
PENDANTS, en- route for Washington City,
when az q station Gb Jut three miles west
of where Newburg low stands, he put an
end to his own life. Here he was buried,
and over his grave has been erected, by
order of the Tennessee Legislature, a
plain but substantial monument.
CHARACTER OF THE LANDS.
Some of as good lands as can anywhere
be found in Middle Tennessee lie along
this river and its tributary creeks. Cur,
Cling fountains of everlasting water, I'M
surpassed in every quality that renders
water desirable, are interpreted at con-
venient distances for use on all the fertile
lands that skirt this charming stream.
These perennial springs gush forth
from rocks, or pour down rugged
crags, or rush in roaring rills
from deep, cool cavtrns, or issue from
NOISY hillsides, or well up from pebbles
In shady glens, or bubble forth from ebert
and gravel on the highlands.
HEALTH OF TIE COUNTRY.
The air here is no less salubrious than
the water. Good health and long life,
the natural consequences of such bracing
air and viVifying water are everywhere
evidenced in the people. ''The far famed
and far-dres ded fever ard aguen some
times prevail along this river, the bottoms
of which msy act as sory of laboratory
for the formation Of malaria. Besides
these paludal fevers, this section is liable
like all other places, to many other
diseases, yet assert that more healthy
region, all things considered, does not ex.
ist in the whole Southwest, for where on
earth are sickness, pain and death" not
found.
TIMBER
The whole range of hills that escarp
this valley, gracefully extending away in
every direction, are densely covered with
oxonlIanf