South Branch intelligencer. [volume] (Romney, Va. [W. Va.]) 1830-1896, 1877-03-30
Recuperation in Virginia.

The efforts OF tire people OF Virginia
since the war to retrieve the terrible
losses entailed by that destructive con-
test have been rs remarkable and per.
sistent rs the heroic energy they dis.
played in battle. A summary OF these
victories of peace appears i'm the Rich.
mond Sta,e. The fences, barns, mills,
factories, farming utensils, and in thou.
sands OF instances the dwellings. and
even colleges and churches themselves
had been destroyed. and Richmond was
half burned down in the pitiless war
which had swept over the State. Every
county in Virginia had been tramplcd
and wasted by the invading armies.-
The mules and horses wc-e all gone, the
cattie, sheep. and hogs aud poultry had
all been consumed. The railroads were
worn out beyond repair. All means OF
water transportation were destroyed.
FIFTY able bodied men out OF every
hundred had been killed or disabled by
wounds and disease in the war, anu
mourning and desolatiou were in all Viz.
ginia homes.
Now farms. fences, mills, factories,
barns and dwellings in Virginia are gen.
orally restored. and arc in a better con-
dition than they were before the war.
New railroads have opened new avenues
for the increased productions of the
farms. mines and factories. In Nor.
folk. Lynchburg, Danville and Staunton
population and trade have greatly in.
creased, as i'm other towns and villages.
Richmond has increased twenty-five
thousand people. The whole of the
burnt district in that city has been re.
built on larger and finer plans, and the
dwellings increased in size and style,
have spread far beyond the former city
limits. The development OF trade and
manufactures and commerce ia common.
surate with all this
six or seven years after the wars
end one iron establishment in Richmond
was employing 800 to |, 800 hands, and
giving support to 5000 people OF their
families.
Tho flour mills turn out thousands of
barrels per day. and one hundred tobac.
co factories. sumac mills, planning mills,
hat factories. paper mills, nail works,
and other large manufactures OF iron
and farming utensils evince the energy
and business capacity of Virginia's cap.
ital city.
Only few years ago the annual
shipment Of cotton from Norfolk did
not reach 80, 900 bales, and five years ago
there was not cotton press in that town.
Norfolk has now become the second cot.
ton port in the South, and three cotton
presses work day and night to load
the ships.
"ln Petersburg there are forty or City
tobacco factories and nine cotton facto-
ries at work. In Danville there are over
| fifty or sixty tobacco factories.
But it has not been merely to mate
rial interests Yirginians have directed
their energies. The education OF all
classes has been fostered; schools and
colleges are restored on n much larger
! scale; new ones have grown mp; the
/ fine military college, which was burned
! by Hunter, has been rebuilt, and stands
to-day better school, with broader
| policy of instruction and an ADLER facul.
| ty than has ever been at West Point.
Insanity, once unknown amongst the
negroes, has become n great and in.
creasing ailliction. To relieve it Vir-
ginia has established an insane asylum
| for negroes-the only one in the world
where more than 500 Of them are cared
for, and which may he commended to
the authorities in this era of reform rs a
model of cleanliness, humanity and eco.
nomical and faithful administration wor-
thy to be followed by some other more
protentious institutions.
"Such facts as these show that the
Virginia people have not degenerated.
and suggest what other Southern States
might have done since the war if per-
mitted to manage their own affairs"