Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-10-02
COLEMAN'S RAILROAD.
A VERY LIVELY TIME IN LEBANON.
Opening OF the New Railroads at that Point
Some Account OF u Famous raniy
-.Tne Great ore Mines


The opening OF the now Colcbrook Val
ley and the Cornwall and Lebanon rail
roads at Lebanon, Monday, forming 4
continuous line from Conowago, ON the
Pennsylvania railroad, II miles east OF
and 81 west OF Lancaster, to
Lebanon, was an event Of great popular
interest in that section. Ii attracted t. the
town an immense number of spectators and
There was notable absence
of railroad magnates or public men from
abroad, and the whole occasion was of an
almost purely informal and popular char.
acter. The master spirit of the enterprise
is young Robert II. Coleman, man not
yet i'll his eth year, though ranking
among the first Of Pcnnsylvanh million
aires. Lebanon has felt for some years
tho impulse of his bushes energy aud with
his new COlebToOk furnaces turning out
|, 800 tons OF iron per week, his vaSt landed
estates hercabouts and the largo interest
which he controls in ttrc famous Cornwall
ore bank, with 10, 900, 900 tons OF iron ore
lying above tho water level, 1t was not 60
have been expected that his enterprise
would stop short OF connecting his bound.
less resources and network OF industries
with both the great railroad systems OF
the state.
Nhy tho Road was Built.
The two branches Of the estate of Robert
Coleman's heirs, represented on one side
by Robert II. Coleman and on the other
by Mr.. William Freeman, acting for the
Freemans, Aldens and Miss Sara Coleman,
planned the road from Cornwall TO Cone
WACO via Colebrook, Robert ii. Coleman,
however, controlling three tifths OF the
stock. In the social and business differ.
ences which have lately arisen between
these two branches of this famous family,
the minority party have been brought into
autagonism with the Robert ii. Coleman
interest, and rs they controlled the Corn
wall aud Lebanon road, to perfect his
independent system he organized another
company and built q parallel road from
Cornwall to Lebanon, which was opened
Monday also in connection with the Cole
brook Valley.
The new line not only establishes
Pennsylvania railroad connections with
all the rapidly increasing industrial cs-
tabliShments in and around Lebanon, but
brings the MiddlCtown, Marietta, Chicklcs,
Columbia and all the lower SasQuchanua
furnaces near to the Cornwall ore bank
supply and greatly facilitates passenger
travel as well as freight traffic bctwCCn
Lebanon and Lancaster counties, whl'h
the furnace hills boundary has heretofore
been barrier to. In the approaching
struggle between the Pennsylvania and
Reading system for the business of every
important section in tho state the n5w
line is a factor, aS it already provides q
parallel TO the Lebanon Valley for half the
distance between Harrisburg aud Read NJ.
The Coleman Freeman Alden party, how
81, l,,,f ,.,E., fE, o.
which they have au investment Ot two
tifths of four hundred thousand dollars
but which is controlled By their rival, has
already begun the construction OF a new
road from Cornwall, via Mount Hope fur
naces, another of the works supplied from
Cornwall, TO Mannheim, station on the
Reading and Columbia railroad. This is
intended to bring Reading and Cornwall
aud the products of their iron works aud
mines still nearer 10 Lancaster and tho
lower Susquehauna iron making region.
The Day Celebration.
All day Monday long trains ran back
aud forward over the new line, every car
being crowded with tho pOpula1e Of the
adjoining region, who eagerly embraced
the novelty of tho occasion Several
thousand free passengers were carried, a.
the lowest calculation. Tue daY was per-
feet in all its conditions and the country
presented beautIfulaspeCc. Early in the
morning q citizens committee OF Lebanon,
consisting of J. NJ. Shonk, W. d. Rauch,
w. NJ. Bresliu, George B. UIrich, George
ii Spang, DR.. !. Reilly Buclcr, D.. George
=. LineaweaveT, W. II. Goodyear, Aaron
+. Seigrist and ID. VI. Sharp, set ont for
COnewagO to meot tho first Company of
visitors. The single car which carried
them had on board also superintendent
jennings, Engineer Kendall, Supcru,cnd
ont Of Tracks Mcdonnell, Directors Hess
Rise Weidmau and RNlseCker. ~ Corn
wall President Robert II. Coleman and
Directors Maxwell aud lIain joined the
party. Returning the train was me. 1t
tho Lebanon depot by the balance Of the
citizens committee, when D limo Of p-O
cession was formed by Senator {. Il
Lautz and headed by the Perseverance
band marched to the court house, where
Colonel J. +. ;. Goblin was introduced
and welcomed the guests in an appropriate
address, which was responded to by Rev.
j. II, Pennabecker, a Reformed minister,
OF EllzlbethtOwu, Lancaster equity q
town of some Importance, two miles from
Conewago, the point of junction with the
Pennsylvania railroad. This concluded,
the demonstration assumed an entirely
popular and formless shape and the bal
ance of the day was spsut by the excur.
| tionsts ol the streets of Lebanon and
riding to aud fro on the new railroad,
Character of tho Country
Those who took any Of the several trains
at ConewagO Monday morning saw at
that point nothing TO suggest tho location
of i railroad cGutro there except the
natural formation of the country, the
Colebrook Valley meeting the line Of the
Pennsylvania road Just this sidC of the
high bridge over the UOnewagO creek
which forms the dividing line between
Lancaster and Dauphin counties. Al
around are the boulder fields aud tracts Of
stuntcd pines, familiar to traYolcrs be
tween Harrisburg and Lancaster. Tncrl
is not dwelling house in the imm adiat,
ueighbOrhOOd, though in the valley
stretching nOrthwestward to the Furnace
hills are fertile folds ald fine farms. A
Bates GIubb owns the rough lands there
abouts aud there is talk OF locating iron
works at that iavorably situated spot
Thence the road runs up the valley tC
Colebrook furnace, where Robert ii. Cole
man owns the old family estate of some
five thousand acres. The furnace there,
once famous for its iron and template
stoves, abandoned a quarter of q century
| ago, is sunken into the ground nearly tC
| the roof, and yet some of the older inhab
| itants, who delight in the memory Of III
ancient glorcs, iOrosee in the near future
the establishment, on this fitting and his
| torical site, ol great stC3l works or Other
vast industrial establishments. ThencC
| for six or seven miles toward Cornwall The