Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1881-12-15

larged. Upon the books, in some of the
counties, are charged twice as many acres
as their boundaries contain. Webster
county has, or had, nearly five acres as.
sessed for every one actually owned. 1t all
comes about in this way: Several persons
the property entered in his own name.
Senior grants overlap one another,
and Junior grants lie between, tract
heaped upon tract, like a plate OF
buckwheat cakes, until the amount of
actual territory bears but small proper
ton to the aggregate of conflicting claims.
No Little Mischief
was caused by the Legislature of 1868,
which allowed all the exploded, forfeited.
dead and buried land titles to be revived
and placed on the assessors books. 1t put
the land sharks to work all over the country:
Entries that had never been perfected, and
grants that had long since ceased to be of
value, were resurrected, in many instances
by parties who had never even known the
original patentees. In some cases deeds
were actually forged, in order to pass
the ghost of dead title, from former
holder to q greedy speculatOr. These
claims being placed upon the books, were
allowed to become delinquent; they were
forfeited and sold, lot of pirates became
the purchasers, took deeds from county re-
corders, and representing themselves as
holding grants directly from the State, have
been peddling their bogus titles in every
city in the Union, swindling innocent pur-
Chasers. and lowering i'll public'estimation
the very best land titles in West Virginia.
There are few
Large Surveys
| in this State to which the title is perfectly
GOOD, or rather to which n perfect title can
| be made, by taking the steps necessary Tor
redemption and removal of membranes:
But the number of large tracts with good
| titles is undergoing a process OF gradual
| diminution. For q number OF years the
| taxes have been allowed to accumulate
upon them; they have been forfeited, and
where forfeited and not redeemed, are now
being cut into small tracts and sold Tor the
| benefit of the school fund.
In Judge Wards Circuit
the sale of lands for school purposes was
slow process. The Judge would not
confirm sale unless the land
brought good round figure
| The result was that the taxes continued to
| grow from year to year until they and the
| lands on which they accrued became per-
| feet nuisance to the Auditor, the assessors,
the sheriffs and the public generally. One
tract, the Maistand, containing one,hun-
dred and fifty thousand acres in. wyoming
| county, was permitted to continue. In
state of delinquency until the State, county
| and district taxes against it aggregated
| $4,000.
The New Judge.
David +. johnson, of Mercer, wisely de-
tcrmined to abate what was evidently a
nuisance, and to remove what was becom-
ing an obstacle to the. settlement OF the
country. A number of sales of school lands
have been had, in his circuit and the sales
have been confirmed. Some parties i'll
your city recently made purchases OF this
sort to the amount of eighteen thousand
acres at the low price of ten cents per acre
When the proceedings are regular, and the
party in whose name the forfeiture occurred
had good claim, titles obtained in this
way are generally good, and the sales Will
| 10 doubt help the settlement ana develop
ment of the country.
Recent Geological Explorations
have traced the celebrated coking coal veins
| of New River from Mercer county on the
south to Webster county on the north. To
reach this coal the Norfolk and Western
| road is pushing an extension down New and
| up East rivers into Flat Top Mountain;
while the Richmond and Allegheny has
been making large purchases on Glade
| creek in Raleigh county of lands containing
! the same veins. The latter road through
| its connection with the Atlantic and North
| western, will pass through this valuable
| coal along New River for more than fifty
miles, and the area which it will devclope
| on that river and its tributaries is al
mostHncalculable in its extent. Speaking
| of the Goals of this section, L am reminded
| that the
Pittsburg Interests
are manifestng no little of the spirit of
rivalry over the developments on New and
| Kanawha rivers. Mining and manutactur.
| ing journals representing Pittsburg and
COnnellsville are now engaged in heated
| discussion with publications that speak for
| the coal and coke of the kanawha field, and
so far, the latter arc holding their own
very we'll in the discussion. Major Jed
| Hotchkiss, in his monthly, the Firginids,
publishes a series of analyses OF Pittsburgh
| Goals and cokeS as compared with similar
series of analyses of Kanawha Goals and
| cOkeS.
The analysis are apparently exhaustive;
| they are made by the best analytical chem
lists and mining engineers of Pennsylvania
| and Virginia, and cannot fail to be OF great
| practical value in connection with the fu-
| turc of manufacturing interests, particular
| ly in the Ohio Valley. l annex the
| Summary:of Results.
| l. In reference to carbon percentages M coal,
| that the Pittsburgh Goals range from 54.3S3
| to 64150, while those of the Lower Great
! Kanawha range from 1920 to 1881, or more
| fairly (omittng camel coal, No. Q, and the
| ultimate" composition of No. y. from
| Sc so to 7232; and those of New River, the
| Upper kanawha, from 7OG4 to Hfo-the
| Great Kanawha Middle Measure Goals
! (omitting cannel), averaging better in car
! bon than the Pittsburgh, and the Great Ma
| nawha Lower Measure, or New River, sur
| passing the best Pittsburgh from 5.9l4 to
! il $50 per cent, and the worst from lO.43i
| to -. 170 per cent; and in each case to the
| extent OF those less carbon percentages that
/ 49, NN,u.a, -, 1Ar
the same extent that much less valuable as
| heat fuels.
.. In reference to carbon percentage ~
ookcs, that the Connellsville cokes range
| from $3.50 to S9576 per cent, while those
| from Lower Kanawha (the few that we
| have) range from 90.3l to $500, and those
| from UppeO Kanawha New River Goals
from 81. % to 94.03 per cent. all of the great
Kanawha cOkes SURPRISING the best OF the
| Connellsville from 072t TO 4.454 per cent.
| in carbon, and therefore in calOrihc eft-
| cheney. The tests of work done by these
cokes in blast furnaces and elsewhere,
fully sustain the claims made by these
chemical deductions.
3 In reference to sulphur percentages IN
Goals, that the Pittsburgh Goals range from
O.63S TO 800, the Great kanawha No. XIII
ones from 0ls to "a. and the New River
No. MI ones from 0.26 to 0.669. These re-
suits indicate by the deduction OF chem
istry" that the Great Kanawha Goals have
much less of this iron and steel-damaging
and gas-deteriorating element in them than
the Pittsburg; and the extract from the
letter Of the President of Cincinnati Gas
light Co., and that from the Treasurer OF
Ensign Manufacturing Co., published else
where, show "by the superior test of prsc-
teal experience" the same conclusions.
4. In reference to sulphur percentages ~
cokcs, that they range, in ConnellsTille
(Pittsburgh) from 0.OS4, in New River from
e.494 to O.92, and in Kanawha proper from
OF to .594; apparently to the general ad-
vantage of Connellsville, but not II No. 1 is
excluded from the Pittsburgh list, as it
should be, as that was not commercial
article, as Pa Report L., page l6 shows
We selected the best Pittsburgh analyses
we could find out of large number pub
lished in the Pa. Reports. We have as yet
! lad hut few analyses made. and so present