The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1873-03-01

1
session, has under consideration TIT
propriety of making liberal appropria
tons for the development Of its resour
ces by internal improvements through
out the State Among the numerou
bills now pending there is one that il
likely to pass, providing for the sur
vey of the Iron Valley and Pennsyl-
vania Line Railroad" which will be o
great importance to the country
through which it il to pass and to thu
iron interest of your city. The bill re-
ferred to provides Tor a survey oil
route or the above road, common
cling at a point on the Baltimore
IL OHIO Road twelve miles east o.
Grafton, and running by the way o.
Franklin, furnace, Kingwood (tht
county eeat OF Preston Muddy Creek
Furnace, Brusetop Mills, Brsndouville
AID thence to the Pennsylvania line in
the county of Fayette. Last winter
through the energy and influence OF the
late Hon. Andrew Stewart and others
OF Fayette county, your Legislature
passed concurrent act authorizing the
construction OF railroad from Falls
City, point on the Pittsburgh and
Gonnellsville Road, some s'xty.flve OF
venty miles east OF your city, to con-
meet with tots road. The entire dis
lance from the Baltimore and OHIO
road to the Connellsville road by this
route will be about fifty miles.
The route contemp plated is continu'
Gus water line through vally abound
ing with valuable timber, coal and iron
ore, the coal vein running from four to
eight Get, and iron ore from 'wo IN
fourteen eet in tn ckness The Frank
lin, MUDDY Creek and Wharton Iron
Works are located on the line OF this
road. The Franklin furnace, under
stand, is the most extensive in THIS
Sla,e, and could be made valuable
feeder 10 the iron interests OF your city
could you be reached by this contem-
plated enterprise. also understand
tnat an en'erprising company from the
5 ale OF Vermont have bought the
MUDDY Creek furnace, and are now
puttiug their machinery, DC, in ample
1rier. with view of extending their
Capacity to manufacture pig metal
This valley IS decidedly the richest in
iron ore OF any place | know this side
of The Iron Moui tsins o. Missouri, and
why il has been overlooked up to this
time. when iron manufacturers have
had TO pay such exorbitant prices 'or
pg metals, is a mystery,to me, especial
iy wnen it is known that pig metal can
be manufactured IN this valley tor less
than one halt the prices now paid by
the trade
There is another important matter
connected with the construction OF this
road, which is worthy o. the consldera'
ton O, railroad companies aud capital
lists, 10 which | desire 10 call attention
[ am informed that nearly all the coke
shipped from the neigh borhood Of
Uniontown and Connellsville to the
southwestern market, is shipped to
Parkersburg by The way OF Cumberland
Marylaud, making distance by rail o
ABOUT $50 miles, whereas the same
market could be reached by this con
t,mplated route by a distance OF MOI
exceeding 200 miles. 10 other word'
instead OF running east Tor Cumberland
aud then directly back west by the way
OF Grafton, making trip of something
like 200 miles to Grafton, the latter place
could be reached from Falls City
bv this route in less thar
seventy-tive miles, thereby saving IL
trave nearly two hundred miles, to say
pothit,g OF the heavy grades to over
come from Piedmont to Newburg. Oh
the Baltimore and Ohio road. Before
closing, allow me to say that, having
been a citizen OF West Virginia for TIT
last twenty years, throw out these
reflections and suggestions from
PERSONAL knowledge OF the country
and when ! add that | don't kno"
of any country within one hundred
miles of Pittsburgh, where capital cat
be 80 proftably invested as in thu
region, from the fact that lands Cat
now be bought at from teD to twent..
dollars per acre, whereas no better land
in the Frostburg mining district arr
selling at from ore hundred TO hive nun
bred dollars per acre. PRESTON.