Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1884-03-25
For the SPECTATOR
The First Cooking Stove in Augusta.

| MIR. EDlTOR.-W stibliS lOI bHo CdIS u
bring us here few days ago, we encoun-
tered at the station native of the county,
who. in 1S42-'43, treaded every road, by
road, and cow-path i'll the county and out
of it, carrying to peoples doors the Hatha-
way patented cooking stove
Jacob Finney, handsome New York
bachelor from Albany, came among US,
rented a foundry erected by P. O. Palmer
and began the manufacture of this stove.
At the end of two years, in which he had
been wonderfully successful, Albert CARRIER,
who for ten years or more had been in the
Cumberland, Pa, Valley, where, as we
think, he was married, was summoned here
to the bedside of his father, tho late Mich
ael CARRIER, who was dying. After that
event, Finney sold out to him his establish
ment, and some one else, not remembered,
and he CD formed a partnership with Mr..
- Jones, son-in-law of the late Edward
Valentine, and entered upon the manufac-
ture of the stove at Pattinsburg, where, as
we think, Mr.. J.. had been living. Events
of to-day, like the waves chasing one an
other to the shore, obliterate the memories
Of yesterday. We had forgotten, until re-
minded by the gentleman above mentioned,
that the Rev. VIM Calhoun, and not P. O.
P, had cut canal Of so to rs yards,
through solid limestone ledge, at, per-
hars, the shortest curve in Middle river,
from it's head spring to its mouth, and
erected the Valley Mill. Neither do we
remember the date at which P. o. P.
erected this foundry and began the manu-
facture of threshing machines, which, had he
pursued the course of Pitt at Buffalo, N. Y,
with the same intelligent energy, might, like
him, have attained worldwide reputation.
OLD JOHN BROWN.
Some time during John B. Floyd's hold
ing the folio of the War Department under
Buchanan, he sent us with an order to our
friend Maj. A. N. Barbour, Superintendent
Of the Harper's Ferry Armory, directing
him to have made for us the best specimen
Of gun, Of the Lorenzo Sibert patent
the latter dubbed the Virginia Pacifcator.
For three weeks, we were most pleasantly
entertained by him and his lovely Wife
Miss Daniels, near Leetown, Jefferson
county, W. Va. Our last entrance into
that historic building was with our at
tached friend, then Capt. Turner Ashby,
when calling, as both of us were, to see
Gen. (StonewalD Jackson. And it was on
our ride down Bolivar Heights with Ashby
we took our leave of him the last time, a |
hundred or two yards from the Armory-
gate, John Browns prison. Singular coin
cidence, just there we met his brother
Dick, just from Texas, gia Fauquier, where |
he spent two or three days with his |
mother and sisters. He said to us that we |
were the first acquaintance he had seen |
since leaving home, and that was promi- |
neat reason to impress him with the fact |
He was elegantly mounted, as was his SER
want. Asking if we could tell him where |
he would find "brother Turner" we di- |
rected him, took leave of him, and in ten |
days he was in his coffin.
Maj. Barbour gave the then head-work-
man in the Armory charge Of our gun. To
would express it tamely-G. G. Schoppert, |
now of the firm of Schoppert & Rife. Val. |
ley Mills. He is the only man living who |
was in the John Brown raid, on the part |
of the authorities in Virginia and the Uni |
ted States in aiding in his capture. He |
had the minutiR, in connection with it, ac-
curately written up, when, by a fire few |
years ago, the manuscript was burned. |
He informs us the Yankee version, gotten |
up at the time. was everything else than |
truthful. His body and mind are active
and vigorous, and we mention these facts |
in order that they may meet the eye of |
some one who will interview him, and pre-
serve this interesting chapter of history. |
With young Rife, the only child of man
who lived to be near sixty before he per-
petrated matrimony, most excellent man. |
the late Daniel Rife, Of jennings Gap,
who married Schoppert's only child, they |
are running the Palmer foundry, though |
to build one of their own near
Waynesboro'. From printed paper be-
fore me, find they are building the most
simple and cheapest waterman extant, |
making one pound of creek-water drive one |
pound of spring water to your home. 1t |
is said TO be the wonder of learned and sci
entifc men.
Since writing the above, have met an old |
citizen of that vicinity, who corrects an
error in the above. Mr.. Calhoun built the
old mill on the site of the wood-shop, and
Palmer dug the canal and built the new
mill and foundry after buying out Mr.. Cal
houn. OCCASIONAL.