Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1884-06-07
OUR TRIP TO CHARLOTTE.

a. rep0rper or the CHRONICLE accom-
panied Judge Smith to his appoint
ment at Charlotte last, Monday. We
spent the night before the speaking at
Cumberland Furnace under the hos
pitable roof Of Mr.. Robert Stone, one
of the owners and general manager of
the furnace. The Cumberland Fur
mace is an old institution, having been
in operation for about 81 years. First
under the ownership of tia late Mont
gomery Bell, next under that OF
Anthony Van Leer, and nowunder
corporation, the style of which 9 "The
Drouillard Iron Company the Qresi-
dent being Capt. ]. p. Drouillar1, of
Nashville. Every man who has had
charge of these works has made an
independent fortune out of them, and
the present company seem to be fol-
lowing the example set them by their
predecessors MIR. Stone is a thorough
business man, full of energy, and inn
presses his goaheaditiveness upon all
his employees. In addition to the fur
mace, which is now in full blast, they
have an immense pasturage and have
turned their valuable property, such
as they are not using otherwise, into
an immense stock farm. Recently
they shipped to Memphis one hundred
beeves and sold them at an average of
five cents gross. Capt. Stone says
they expect to increase their stock
raising to very large extent. Their
cattle are mainly of the Shorthorn
stoc--. In addition they raise i'm
mense focks of sheep. 1t excited a
great deal of interest in US to see the
t, ouble which the loss of very valua-
bic sheep caused Cap. Stone. 1t was
stolen from him on Saturday night.
He investigated the cause of his tax
ing off and found that it had been
killed and carried away by some felon,
but could not find who it was. He
determined, however, to follow it up,
and ON Monday morning at 6 o'clock
he left his home with constable and
a search warrant and determined to
search every house for miles around
10 find who got his sheep. Fe did
not care so much for the sheep, but
wished to arrest the felon so as to pre-
vent a -'epetition of like nature. In
other words he was following the old
ninety and nine doctrine, and right
successfully did he prosecute his de-
termined purpose, for as We returned
on Monday afternoon we me. him
and his constable 81 miles from Char
lotte with two prisoners III charge.
They were both of the sable persua-
sion and in each of whose houses he
found one-half of his sheep. They
confessed to having stolen the mutton
and we predict thai that will be a
protection to him in the future. There
is no better man than Capt. Stone.
At the furnace we met the Rev. Mr..
Bonsall, an Episcopal minister, who
has charge of the Episcopal church at
that place. He is an elegant gentle
man aud a native of England, and has
resided for many years III Canada.
They have not only achurch at that
place, but an excellent school build
ing and good schools are taught
herein.
On Monday morning we rode into
Charlotte, arriving there at ten o'clock.
The Chancery Court opened therethat
morning, the Hon. George III. Nixon
presiding. The Judge was very kind |
and before we arrived, knowing that |
JUDGE Smith was to make a speech |
there in behalf of the railroad that
day, had adjourned his court until |
Tuesday morning. There was large |
crowd in town. The bell was rung |
and Judge Smith commenced his |
speech at once, speaking about an |
hour and quarter He laid before |
them the proposition made by Major |
Gordon to the citizens of Dickson |
county on the Goth day OF Mey, and |
which we published in these columns
some two weeks ago. After. a pretty |
thorough discussion OF the nature and |
character of the proposition, he stated |
that some of the citizens had told him |
thai Dickson county was a poor coun-
ty. He denied it, and stated that in |
the South there were no colossal for
tunes like those which existed in New |
York and other great cities of the
North - like those of Vanderbilt, |
Gould, Russell Sage and others who
might be mentioned, but that Dickson |
county was uoL a poor county as a |
county; that it was rich in mineral |
wealth, that all t.Iat was necessary to |
maize it one Of the richest counties in |
Tennessee was simply to develop the |
wealth that was underneath the sur
face. He stated chat he had remained |
all night the night before at Cumber-
land Furnace, that Mr.. Stone had told |
him that that property had been pref
ty actively worked for more tan so |
years, that the company owned $4,000 |
acres of mineral land, that every parti- |
Gle of the iron ore which had been |
taken from the property was within a
boundary of :orty acres, that he be-
lieved that not over twenty acres had
been mined and not one pound of ore
had been gathered outside of forty |
acres. Off of these forty acres Mont
gomery Bell had amassed an immense
fortune and had left to his family an |
immense estate, besides giving off, |
great charity to the poor children of |
Montgomery, Dickson and Humph-
reys counties. After his death Mr.. |
Van Leer took charge of the property |
and accumulated from the iron manu-
factory there an immense estate and
left great fortune to his family. The |
present company were operating it
with equal if not greater success than