The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1872-06-18
ADDRESS,.

FELLOW CITIZENS: Not feeling our
selves competent to do the subject jus.
tice, we enter upon our duty with the
assurance that you will overlook any
informalities that we may make in pre-
pairing the address. We hope it may
contribute to the success of the enter
prise under consideration.
The first question that occurs to our
minds is, do we need a railroad up
the valley of the Little Muskingum !?
And, if so, will it pay2 We shall en-.
deavor to prove both the above points
by undisputed facts, and if so then we
have fulfilled our duty which you have
selected US to perform. as
The oil regions of Cow Run aud Fif-
teen are an item of considerable inter
est to be taken into consideration. We
believe there will be large amounts of
oil produced on Fifteen when the terri.
tory is fully developed; and the trans
portation of oil from Cow Run too, is
an item of much interest to those con-
cerned. A railroad up the Little Mus
kingum valley would pass through the
heart Of the tobacco growing region of
Washington and Monroe Counties. Say
along the proposed route between Ma
rietta and Woodsfeld there is produced
annually 1000 hogheads of tobacco at
an average of 500 pounds per hogshead.
1t costs from 25 to so cents per hun
dred pounds to haul this to market or
to the Ohio River. Also, the item of
merchandise sold along this route
amounts to hundreds of thousands of
pounds annually which has to be hauled
on wagons from different points along
the Ohio River, and in the winter sea-
son it is almost impossible to get
goods hauled at any price. We have
plenty of coal at various points along
this creek, and if our territory was fully
developed we have no doubt but there
is at almost any point We have nc
mode of conveyance. Hence there is
no interest taken in this matter. Our
forests are covered with yellow poplar,
oak &C., that could be converted into
lumber that is going to waste Tan,
bark, hoop poles and slaves in aband.
ance, but no way of conveying them to
market, consequently they are all lost
to MS for the reason that we can MOI
convey them to market. Our orchards
are of but value to us except fol
home consumption. There are no betteI
lands in our knowledge for potatoes
1 than our creek Bottoms are. If we hac
any mode of conveyance there would bt
thousands of bushels produced annually
1 Let us take into consideration the
amount Of stock and produce that il
daily going into Marietta from the Duel
Creek valley and we believe that i
Woodsfield and Marietta were connect
ed by rail the same result would follow
Such railroad would pay for the bull
! ding in few years and be a great bene
fit to merchants, mechanics and far
mers. Much more night be said in be
| half of this road and we believe the in
terest that will he manifested along thi
route win induce capitalists to take int
consideration the merits Of our cause
, and we ask that our claims may b
J taken into consideration; and we solici
correspondence in regard to the matter
We hold ourselves in readiness to Civ
; any information we possess in re
gard to the matter and to render sucl
assistance as we can. a.t . s-s,-
7aI Respectfully, DC,
PORTER FLEMING,
HT Chairman of Committee,
Lawrence p o. Washington Co., %.