Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-08-19

development in industrial pursuits, sustain
the young city and the advancing town in
a steady course of prosperity.
THE VALLEY RAILROAD.
The scenes of past time along the Valley,
when the commerce between Baltimore and
Tennessee was moved by the great road
wagons Characteristic of that day, are yet
fresh in the recollections of our older citi-
zens. The Indian trail, the buffalo path,
the pack-horse, the emigrant wagon, the
commercial wagon, and the railway are the
periods of progress. Along tho eastern
slope Of tho plateau the railway has plant
ed itself in it's extension from Staunton to
Lexington. Its route is through the oldest
settlements of the Valley. The lands have
passed through the stages Of tillage neglect
and then to recuperation. Undulating
with their dove-tailed streams ex-
pand into plains between green rolling hills
and dark old forests. The location of the
railway is parallel with the old Valley stage
road above and never far from it. Scarcely
one of the old homesteads along the way OF
under the invigorating influences of the new
method of transportation, but gives evi.
dences of systematic effort in the ways OF
good tillage and lasting improvement
Grain and grass and fruit and live stock
grow and prosper in an old land which has
become new. The stations are numerous.
and along the direct line there are no more
than from two to three miles travel in reach
ing one, whilst the distance diminishes to
the greatest number. West and Southwest
from Greenville and Raphine stations, the
wide expanse of country running back to
the North mountains is tributary, and is
rapidly giving evidence of the great value
those sections of Augusta and Rockbridge
are in the diversified productions they are
sending to market. And when the stimu-
lating effects of the railway are fully real
lied, there will be an increase in industrial
pursuits worthy of the well-to-do and ener-
getic population, whose habitations are
among the highlands of the great Valley OF
Virginia. 1.
The management of the railway appears
to be in full accord with the desires
of the people. The unusually large num-
Der OF stations and stopping places have
been referred to. Three trains per day
each way, carrying passengers and full
freight accommodations, certainly places
the transportation facilities in quick de-
spatch and far beyond the anticipations of
the earliest and most earnest advocates OF
the work, and we think time will prove the
sagacity of this city, the county of Rock
bridge, and town of Lexington, in the lib
eral contributions made to the capital stock,
thereby insurlng the construction of the
line. All the interests are mutual and in
harmonious cooperation will prosper all to
a grand and benefcent future.
HISTORICAL "REMINISCENCES INVENTIVE
GENIUS.
The strong characteristics of the early
settlers of this portion of the Valley left an
impress which is still cherished
by the inhabitants. The progress of OPEN
ing the country and planting its industries,
like the dissemination of their religious
faith, called into requisition their highest
aims guided by stern determination. The
written history sketches the location and
prominence of the old Iron Works along
the base of the mountains, but there were
other establishments of Iron industries an
terror to those mentioned by the historian,
which, if ever assigned place in the print
ed records of the country, have not fallen
within the limits Of our reading. The fol-
lowing named iron works in ruins from a
point opposite Mint Spring station to like
limit near Lexington, have place in writ
ten history, and established about the dates
named: Mount TORY, 1900; Kennedy,
1882; Cotopaxi, by Cyrus Fl. Mccormick,
1884; Vesuvius, 1928, by Thomas Maybur-
ry; and Buena Vista, 1S4s, by Samuel F.
duu u. JOIudus
The older works. not mentioned, the sites
of which are still visible, are the Moore
Furnace on the Mari run, between Vesuvi-
us and Midway, by VIM. Moore; the Works
on Irish creek, two miles above its confluence
with South river, and two furnaces. one
near Buena Vista called Etna, and another.
with two FORCES, one mile below Buena Wis
ia, and near the confluence of the South
with the North river, all four of which were
established shortly after the close of the
Revolution by enterprising men named
McCrory, whose descendants still exist in
Rockbridge. The Irish creek furnace is
the Oldest of all, doubtless the first in the
Valley, as tradition hands down as fact
that its productions were worked into pro-
jectiles Of war, and did good service at the
siege of Yorktown.
Moore and Mayburry were men of enter
prise, the first brother or near relative of
Gen. Andrew Moore of Revolutionary men,
DRY. Mr.. Mayburry also established other
works than Vesuvius in the Valley. He
built Victoria in Louisa county, where he
died in 1850. Mrs. Weir, the only survivor
OF his immediate descendants, resides on the
beautiful eminence just south Of Raphine,
Her finely cultivated accomplishments. of
early life are conspicuous in the fuency
and precision with which she entertains
her visitors in relating the events of the
times, when her father was prominent in
association with the old iron masters of
Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia.
In primative times when the people were
dependent upon native skill and ingenuity
n handi-work for edge tools and farming
Implements. John McCown erected first
lass establishment, propelled by water
'ower, on the South river, near to Whites
Jap, which continued to grow with the
progressive times. till it succumbed to the