Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1885-07-10

A RAILROAD TO HIGHLAND.
INITIAL STEPS TAKEN BY THE
M. d M. ASSOCIATION.
RESOLUTIONS ADOPTED BY THE NJ. 6 NJ.
AssOCIATION-AN INSTRUCTIVE DIS
CUSTOM OF THE IMPORTANCE OF THE
NEW RAILROAD.
Monday night when President Cochran
raped to order, there were more members
of the Staunton Merchants and Manufac-
turers Associ alton present than is usual
on ordinary nights. The chief subject of
the general conversation before the Asso-
ment for and prospect of railroad from
Staunton into West Virginia, running
through Highland, and the first business
taken up after the reading of the minutes,
was that. The subject came up under the
head of number of suggestions for the
benefit of Staunton made in May in the
report of Maj. Hart.
Mr.. G. L. Weller, shoe dealer, offered
the following resolutions:
WHEREAS there has ever existed the most cor
dial relations and mutually beneficial trade inter
course between the city of Staunton and county
Of Highland and the border counties IF West Viz
and m ts OF nrg tnPse t Kaa AMY
county to enlarge our dealings and intercourse and
thus to develop the resources OF both it is meet and
proper, that the Merchants and Manufacturers
Association of the city OF Stsunton should inaugu-
rate movements for the accomplishment of these
purposes. To secure these ends a railway from the
city of Staunton through the intervening section of
Augusta county and thence through Highland to
the West Virginia line will best promote the Oh,
operation of such work is the first and necessary
step by which commencement can be made; Oh
servations to routes and location and free inter-
change of views among the people interested are
ESSENTIAL in any movement made. and therefore. in
giving starting shape to the design, the Associa-
tion deems it proper, that in the application for
charter there should be as full representation Of
all the interests involved as it may be practicable
to obtain Therefore be it,
ResoIyed 1st That the President of this Associa-
ton do appoint Committee OF nine, five from the
members of this Association. two from the City
Council and two at large from citizens of the city.
who requested to confer with the people OF Au-
gusta county along the sections thereof which may
manifest an interest in the work, also with those
of Highland county and those in the West Virginia
counties disposed to cooperate in the scheme, and
after maturing their views in the premises prepare
an application in time for the meeting OF the next
legislature for the purpose of obtaining charter
and that said committee report to this Association
Reso7uea md That this Association respectfully
the citizens who may be selected from the Council
and from the city at large in concert with Its own
members in carrying forward the design which has
called the committee into existence.
Mr.. q. E. Haines, wholesale cigar man.
ufacturer, spoke in favor of the resolutions
of Mr.. Weller. He related an incide ntal
conversation bearing on the subject. which
he had few days ago with gentleman
sence of twenty years. The visitor spoke
of the apparent dizziness in Staunton
which he thought was more marked than
in former years, and remarked: "Wby
don't you people make an effort to grasp
the trade OF Highland? If you get
that, it will be the making of you. and if
you don't get it your city will be left. If
the Chesapeake & Ohio R. r. ever makes
branch to the right and goes down to the
B. s. o. at Philippi in West Virginia, that
will finish Staunton forever" Mr.. Haines
said that when our opportunities struck
the eyes of strangers who had no interest
in our welfare, it would be blindness in-
deed to let them escape our own. AS for
himself, he did not know that he sold a
dollars worth of goods to the Highland
trade, but he could see plainly that it was
vitality necessary for the general prosper
ity of our town that it should be gotten.
There is nothing being created in Staun-
ton. and we must look around us to make
business. It won't do to sit down here
and talk about waiting for Northern cap
ital.
A Voice-Whfch don't come.
Mr.. Haines-No; it does not come. 1t
stays at home and leaves US in pretty
much the same condition of Jefferson
Davis-going to pieces while waiting for
for foreign Intervention which never came.
We must use our own resources, and make
them do double duty in extending our
own trade and developing the resources of
the neighboring and friendly county of
Highland.
Mr.. c. A. Gladke, dry goods dealer, said
that he had just returned from Highland.
and while there bad talked to good many
of her people about the railroad and been
asked many questions as to how it could
be built and the prospect of it's being
built. He had read the report Of Major
Hart and felt very much like the High
landers did about it. To one gentleman
in Highland who is largely interested in
and, Mr.. Adam FIeischer, who seemed
much Interested in the proposed road, Mr..
Gladke suggested that very good land
might be made by that coun-
ty through the medium of Land I'm
provement Company, and the reply of Mr..
+. was that if such could be started he
would give $50 acres of land. Mr.. 6. in
conversation with such prominent gentle
men as l.. II. Stephenson, Samuel Ster-
rett and others, found the feeling in favor
of the road very strong.
Col. J. c. Shields. Secretary of the
M. & M. Association, who is thoroughly
posted both by study and personal obser.
walton on the subject of the proposed
road, made most admirable address. He
gave practical encouragement to the
scheme by citing the example of Lynch
burg, of which city he was resident at
the time of it's subscription to the Vir-
ginia & Tennessee R. R. Lynchburg,
said Col. s., was then situated precisely
as Staunton is now, except that she had
large single interest-tobacco. She had
the canal, but the town had been. built up
by the wagon trade and she was about to