Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1883-07-01
A BOOMING TOWN
In West Virginia That Has Out
stripped Any Western Village
In Its Marvellous Growth-eIk Garden, the
Centre Of Great Coal Country
Its Happy and Prosperous PeO-
plea Model Place.
SAT- Correspondence of the REGISTER.


Elk GARDEN, w. Va, June %
Elk Garden in, the great coal fields, To-
Gated on Branch of the w. V. c. & r.
r., has all sprung up since the opening
of the road. The town has a popula-
ton of u bout 600. About one hundred
good houses have sprung up, and a
school house and several churches are
to built. Two years ago there was but
one log house here, and in the language
of an old citizen "there was nothing but
trees and rattlesnakes." Now starts a
prosperous town, with post office, and
several stores all belonging to private
individuals. There is drug store, con.
dictionary, tin shop, several groceries
and meat shops. Mails daily, one each
way. The building here are of a good
character. all built of frame. The
ground is leased to the resident at a
low price, and buildings put up by the
company. More houses are needed and
will be erected. Nearly every family
in town has several boarders, and many
of the miners keep "batch," from two to
eight in batch.
The Town
is located on the Allegheny mountain
about seven hundred feet above the rail
road and away up in the neighborhood
of twenty.six hundred feet above tide.
The people have a good road and in
cline plane coming up. The health
Of the town is splendid. The weather
during the summer season Is generally
warm, but the night are cool and pleas
ant. Mosquitoes are never seen, aud
this is an elegant place to enjoy good
nights rest. found it entirely different
from our warm, but enterprtsing and
beautiful, Ohio Valley. Water is abund-
ance, right from the mountains. 1t is
pure, fresh and clean. In drinking it
/ wonder how our people live drinking
the filthy, sickeniDg, poisoning, warm
water from the Ohio river. There are
two physicians here aud they report
very little work to do. Breadstutfs and
provisions are soldiat reasonable prices
and taking it all in all Elk Garden is
very desirable place to live. A miner
having steady work can save money.
The morals Of the town are good, and
the people are very clever aud intelli-
gent. They are great readers. This
fact is demonstrated by over hundred
copies of
The Register
being sold here. There are several church
congregations. The Catholics are the
strongest and have nearly one hundred
communicates. The Methodist are next
and then the Presbyterians. The Metho-
dists are the only congregation having q
church of their own. Their place Of
worship is a handsome little frame
building over at NethkinSville, one half
mile distant. The other congregations
are preparing to build.
The finest building in or about
the town is the Cottage" also
belonging to the company. This
building stands about third
of a mile from the post office
or mines. 1t was erected by the
company for the use Of the directors,
and is now occupied by the jovial and
popular superintendent of mines, Capt.
\. W. Musgrove, and his good wife.
This famed building is generally known
as the Cottage" and this is all it gets.
Persons, IN speaking Oft, always call it
s'The Cottage"
The building Is not only the nneSl
hereabOuts, but has no equal of its kind
in this or any other State. 1t was
erected in 1851, at q cost of about S. 900.
Neither pains nor expense were spared
in its completeness. The building is
Gothic architecture, two stories high,
with ten apartments, finished with diff
ferent kinds of hard wood, and there is
q sprinkling of stained glass windows
through the building. 1t Is q beauty
one that Capt. Musgrove, and the com.
pany as well, should feel proud OF.
The location is good. The building
stands five miles frem the Northwestern
turnpike, $500 feet above the railroad,
and 2,625 feet above tide water, or only
S. feet lower that Deer Park. 1t is To-
Gated in large spacious lot, and COM
mands one of the finest views in the
country. II there is anything pictur-
esque this certainly is. Standing on
the north porch, the new railroad and
The Beautiful Potomac
can each be seen forming q perfect
horse shoe, with the tall mountains
thick with trees and shrubbery or either
side, and with the shores mirrored IN
the raging waters. For miles the noun