The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1886-10-28
WHOLE NO. 1874


and deed of this company.
4. That the above bonds shall be
for one thousand dollars each.
Another resolution was adopted pro.
viding that the Boston Safe Deposit
and Trust Company act as the trustees
of,the.stock, trust, mortgage and bonds
to be issued, and contract was made
with the Massachusetts and Southern
Construction Company for the begin
ming of work upon this grand enter
prise, which promises so much for the
country through which it passes, and
for Charleston, its Southern termi.
nus.
Charters covering the entire line Of
the Ohio river have been secured, and
the surveying corps, under the direc-
ton of that experienced engineer
Thomas E. Matson, now are engaged in
locating the line through Virginia
and Tennessee. The local business
on that section between the noun
tains of North Carolina and the Ohio
river will unquestionable tax single
track road seriously. Railroad ex-
perts and men of business who have
become familiar with it, unanimously
declare that single track cannot do
the business which will flow to it. The
section of country around Ashland,
opposite to which is Ironton, on the
Ohio river, is known as the Hang
ing Rock Region" and in this section
are already built over sixty complete
iron works, most of which are now
idle from the want of suitable ores for
the profitable, manufacture OF steal.
In Wise county Va, the line Of the
railroad will cross almost boundless
beds of excellent coal, which is said
to be the best in the world, and is ad-
mirable and peculiarly adapted to
smelling "Bessemer steel iron"
The newly projected road will run
from the rich and populous valley of
the Ohio river, across the coal fields
of Kentucky and Virginia, across the
lovely,valley OF East Tennessee with its
beds of brown hematite ores, across
the mountains of North Carolina, with
! their inexhaustible supply of magnet
ic iron, their mica, asbestos and kao-
lin beds, into the milk Piedmont re-
gion, and there, in the northern part
of South Carolina, near the Broad riv-
er, the road will pass through the rich
and limitless beds of rich manganese
$ and brown hematite ores. Here lies
>, the old Cherokee furnaces now idle,
waiting for that rich and unequalled
= coke of Virginia and Kentucky.
The Government appointed a COM
l. mission for testing the different ores
y of the country making canon, and
:, they have recently reported that those
. in the Cherokee section, near Broad
!, river, are the best. On further south
(, this road passes through the best cot
< ton sections of South Carolina on its
l. way to Charleston. The camel coal
l. together with the products of the Ten
I. nessee and Kentucky valleys are pre-
). cisely what North and South Carolina
?. stand in need of. This railroad, con
re structed to Charleston as its ocean ter
minus, would make it the avenue fol
N the West India and South American
ct trade for the West, and establish as
K the coal and cotton market Of the sea
Of board, and secures to her an unequall
oe ed prestige as the mistress of those
I'd waters.
II In conversation with a reporter fol
rs, the News and Courier yesterday, Col
y r. A. Johnson, the general manage
OF OF the Construction Company, said
lr- "This line is what the people of Char
he lesion have been seeking for years
1s, We are surely going to the mountains
er We have line surveyed over the Blu,
lc- Ridge we have corps of surveyor
OF now in Virginia surveying the lin
10 through to the Kentuckey line. w
di- have our arrangements all completed
rst and a part Of road built from Black
o. Station on the Air Line Railroad
/, We have graded forty-fve miles, an
ar are laying COZ pound steel rails q
I'm the rate Of mile a day. We want t
ke connect the mountain country wit
Ia Charleston at the earliest possible mC
ment, and ! can assure you that W
ut are going to build the road as rapid
In as possible. We shall have a line froi
all the iron ore country across the Blu
)0) Ridge mountains within the course
OF two years, and line to Sumter, an
from there to connect with Charlesto
ur- within the next twelve {
,rt- fifteen months. Our road pass,
xe, over coal bed in Kentucky, whic
as is eleven feet thick, and of the vel
ori- purest quality mined in any part
m the world, and Charleston, had 81
Of through connection with these field
ow- would, firmly believe, be the create