Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes Co., O. [Ohio]) 1870-1895, 1873-04-17
OLIVER. EVANS.
The True Inventor of the Lo-
connective.

On Redelay Creek, a tributary to the
Christine, running into it parallel with
the Brandywine, near the city of VIII
mington, number of mills have seated
themselves, attracted by its swift tor
rent, amid scenery of sleeps and rap
ids comparable 20 that on the Lehigh
about Mauch Chunk. Of these the most
interesting traditions attach to the
Falkland Mills. Their name may re-
mind the reader of the first novel of the
late ord LLytton-''FaIkland,' written
in 1s2S-but it was given to the spot
long before, in designation of a primi-
tive settlement Faulk's Land. The
association with this site Is that of Oil
yer Evans, the true inventor of the Lo-
comotive, who here worked and dream
ed in mill enriched by his contrivan-
ees.
Evans, like Fitch, is one of the worlds
lost renowns. Had the Legislators Of
his time possessed sagacIty enough to
endow his inventions, of steam trans
port would have been anticipated by
several years.and the glory would have
radiated from the Delaware River in
stead of from the Hudson. His design
for locomotive was sent to England in
17ss, disputing priority with the"steam
wagons''of JamesWatt. He built steam
boats at Philadelphia in 1902 and 1903,
and ran them successfully, antedating
by five years the Clermont of Robert
Fulton-Fulton whom people are be
ginning to regard with Mr.. Stone au-
thor of the recent sHistory of New
York." as the man who has received the
quality of undcserved praise of all who
ever lived. Oliver Evans, born in l755
of a respectable family, was miller at
Faulkland, where his smaller inventions
were first put in use. The plank just
under the apex of the roof, which he
used to retire to as his private study,
was shown until 1865, when the old
mill was burned. Up among the swal-
lows, as he lay on the boarl-to which
as Beecher expresses it he drought the
softness''- the children of his genius
were conceived and delivered. The
mill was full of labor-saving machines,
which clattered to the Redclay- One
of his notions was the mill seleyator"
Gan improvement of something he had
seen in Marshall's mill at Stanton, by
which grain was raised to the top of the
building in buckets set along revolv-
ing belt was passed from the roof TO the
bottom, distributing this wheat with
spouts to the bolt This was set up, by
contributions among the millers, at
Shipley's great milll,in Wilmington and
also introduced into his own, where
his other inventions of the "conyeyer"
and the ''hopper-boy'' attracted the
stares of the rival millwrighfS. Poor
Olive was known to the fat mhlers OF
this neighborhood rs the inconvenient
person who was always wanting the
loan of a thousand dollars to carry out
new invention The thinking men"
among them sagely argued that his i'm
provements would benefit the consumer
by increasing the supply of flour and
making it cneap-a clear detriment TO
the interests of capital. Then Oliver
plunged desperately into his idea of
steam motion, losing the faint veStiges
of his repute for wit, and died poor and
heartbroken in 1919, the hero of an un-
written tragedy. The happy hours of
his life were the hours ON the dusty
plank in the mitigate at Falkland