The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1884-02-14

Sluc CfaChs NODOuy LldL lOOhS CiOSSly
into the situation can doubt the result
The ROAD WILL COME TO EATON! We
have never for a moment doubted it.
But our citizens must not quietly sit down
and lose sight of the golden opportunity
yet in the distance. Keep on working is
the motto!
Here is Judge Gilmore's brief present
ed to the Board, for which the citizens of
Eaton and Eldorado certainly feel under
many obligations to the Judge:
161 BROADWAY, Feb. 6, 1884.
To THE BOARD OF DIREcToRs OF THE C.
". w. & Nj. R'Y:
GENTLEMEN-I am here to-day in be-
half of the people of ElDorado and Ea-
ton, Ohio, for the purpose of mutually
making IL receiving propositions for
the extension of your line from the L. B.
d w. crossing, via ElDorado and Eaton
and thence southwardly to Cincinnati;
and am much disappointed to learn that
this meeting that was to have taken
place to-day, as l was informed before
starting, has been postponed till Satur-
day next. 1 regret that my business en-
gagements are such that l cannot remain
remain over till Saturday; and on refec-
ton l have concluded, that inasmuch as
we cannot have q full interchange of
views verbally, I will leave for your con-
sideration a written statement that will
put you in possession of the desires of
the people 1 REPRESENTATIVE ability to
perform what they may undertake-some
Of tho roo lnnC that nroyanfod fhafr pnnu-
ing in the matter sooner-the reasons
that prompt their present action, &C., to
which l will add some of my own views
on the subject.
First. The people / represent are anx-
ious that ElDorado and Eaton should be
made points on your road. 1t will give
them a direct northern and an indirect
eastern outlet, that they have long de-
sired, and for which they have hereto
fore made several fruitless efforts. That
former failures had a depressing effect
upon their hopes and retarded earlier eff
forts to ecure the location of your road
was perhaps natural, if not excusable.
Second. Being now aroused and en-
Unused OF the subject, I say, with conf
dence, that they nave the ability to per-
form and will perform whatever they
may undertake to do in connection with
the location of your road as indicated
above. This is the point upon which a
conference with you would have been
valuable, and l hope satisfactory. OF
course you would ask: What will your
people undertake to do?
1 will say frankly that I had intended
to ask: What will you require our peo-
pie to do, as a condition precedent to I'M
questionably obtaining the location of
the road as they desire? 1 would have
hoped to have arrived at a satisfactory
disposition of one or the other of these
questions by a conference and before
the matter is finally disposed of, if it is
yet open, permit me to hope that cur
people will be more fully heard by your
Board. My real hope was that 1 could
obtain from FOUR Board a definite propo-
sition that would insure them the road
upon their complying with it. 1 would
have submitted to them any reasonable
proposition you would have made, with
a feeling of confidence hat it would have
been accepted and performed by them.
1t is upon such a proposition from you,
that | hope our people will be more fully
heard, as 1 have said.
AS indicative of what I would deem
reasonable, 1 will say that our people
will give or procure the right of way and
necessary depot grounds and raise ST.
600 per mile of good dollar for dollar
stock of the Company between the L. B.
& w. crossing and Eaton. 1 am not adj
vised and cannot now speak OF the pros
poets south of Eaton, except that 1 hear
that they have $50 1000 of stock already
raised at Winchester that might be made
available in the event of the road taking
that direction from Eaton. While I am
not prepared or authorized to make
statements in reference to the prospects
for right of way and stock south of Ea-
ton, l know nothing that should deter
the people from making an effort to Sc
cure the right of way and a given amount
of stock per mile on hat portion of the
road.
Third. AS to reasons for not actively
moving earlier in this matter. 1 have
already stated matters that had q de-
pressing effect upon our people. In ad-
dition 1 would say, that from the incep-
south of Greenville our people have been
laboring under the impression that your
Board were partial to the Twin Valley
route, and that you had given the peo-
pie on that route a conditional option, on
complying with which they were to have
the road. OF course our people looked
upon this as an exclusion of the Eaton
route from consideration, and as we are
a practical people, we thought it useless
to make any effort. They now have in
formation that said option terminated
about the LIST inst, ON a failure of the
people to comply with it, and that your
Board will now listen to other PROPOSE
tons. This has induced our people to
go actively to work, on the strength of
which l have written as above; and to
which I will add, that if our people can
accept any proposition you can make to
them, you may limit the option for com
pliance to a very brief space of time, say
20 or 80 days: and
Fourthly. The above constitutes their
reasons for their present action.
! By way of addenda ] will add a few
suggestions of my own. ] am perfectly
familiar with the lay OF the land on the
rort, of which I have been speaking
1t is perfectly feasible and suitable for
the p1rpo ses of a railroad, which will be
easily ard cheaply constructed if the
route is adopted. The line will pass
within two miles of the Christman and
Young stone quarries, which will fur
nish all the stone required of a suitable
Quality. The line is the natural line from
the 1. B. e.. w. crossing to Cincinnati,
and, therefore, the line that should be