Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1888-01-06

OUTPUT $40 TONS A DAY-THE STONE
QUARRY.
&C., &C, &c.
Reported for the Staunton VINDIcAToRl
A representative of the VINDICATOR
dur1ng a visit to Low-Moor last week
made the following ''dots":
There are two settlements at Low Moor,
one at the furnaces Immediately on the
line of the Newport News & Mississippi
Valley Company, and the other at the
mines, two miles distant, constituting
two separate communities of as orderly.
well conditioned, thrifty citizens as one
often sees.
The officers and trusted salalied employ
ees are efficient and skilled in their several
departments, and as intelligent, courteous
gentlemen, it is bard to find such a repre-
sentation anywhere; while the laboring
men as body are industrious, frugal and
orderly. A stranger who has his eyes open
cannot help being impressed with these
things at Low-Moor.
Capt. Henry Merry, the General Mana
ger, has general supervision of both the
furnaces and mines. He, a few months
ago, succeeded the late highly esteemed
Col. Goodwin, and came here from Ne
gaunee, Michigan, where for % years he
had charge of the Jackson Iron Company's
Works. He is practical, intelligent,
business man, and brings to Low Moor
some of that Western push that we often
read about, regulated by a thorough &C.
quaintauce with the newest modes pre-
valling in that great iron region of Lake
Superior and the Northwest, which can
not fail to make him a valuable acquisi-
ton to the Low-Moor Company. Capt,
Merry's son Henry, now stopping with his
father on account of his health, has for
four years had charge Of the charcoal
furnaces at Forsythe, Michigan, though
he is now only 26 years old; and his other
son Thomas, youth of Is, has just entered
the Fishpurne Military School at Waynes-
boro.
Mr.. James Shedding. the furnace mana
ger since the commencement of opera
lions here, it IS well known is a success
among iron men, and though he gets the
largest output Of any other furnace in
the South, he told his directors that he
did not have enough to do, and they are
getting him up another furnace Of equal
capacity with the first one. The stack
and casting house have been completed at
a cost of about 100000. By the time all
the huge boilers, hot blasts, coke ovens.
engines, &C., appertalning to the new fur
mace have been completed, involving an
expenditure of near $500 600, the two fur
naces will have capacity Of about 24O
tons a day. This improvement will prob
ably be completed during the coming year,
and then perhaps Mr.. Shedding and his
assistants will have enough to keep them
busy The improvement is certainly a
very important one to the comm unity in
which the enterprise is located, as we'll as
to the iron interest of the whole State.
The freight business of Lowmoor is said
TO be the largest of any station upon the
line between Richmond, Va, and Licking
ton, Ky. On the Goth ult IS car loads OF
CUdl duu liOa w ACSClfONs cAdo NV SoHo
of iron shipped, which is about the daily
average, and Capt. 9. L. Williams. the
depot agent. is one of the busiest and most
efficient men on the road.
The cashier of this big concer is Capt.
81. A. Doyle of Bedford, and the clock
work precision with which every thing is
regulated in his Office is admirable, while
the paymaster's office at the furnace is run
by MIR. s. S. Carglll and Mr.. Henry W.
Goodwin, and at the mines by Mr.. M. A.
Rowan; and one cannot observe the bust
ness meth DDS in these offices and see the
little time that is lost from business in
them, without being satisfied that the
best man for each place has been selected
and master hand is at the helm.
There is also large and admirably
stocked store at the furnace, with two
full departments, dry goods and grocer.
les in one house, but separate. and super
intended by Mr.. W. G. Lawrence who has
four assistants, and another large one al
the mines managed by Mr.. W. II. Will
Hams, where the large community there
is supplied with every necessary of life
from hair pin to barrel of -four, or q
roast of beef.
The Mine Superintendent is Mr.. W.
S. Hungerford, a competent mining engln
Ger, who has carried out several impor
tant improvements recently, among which
may be noted a new ore shaft, now in full
and successful operation, and a reading
room for the employees where any Of them
can get all the reading they want at the
nominal cost of about 163 cents a month
The stone quarry situated between the
mines and the furnaces, from which a
branch track runs from the main railroad
between the two places, and where the im.
mense quantity of limestone used at the
furnace is procured, is a feature of this
place which every visitor goes to see. Be
ginning in the face Of an inexhaustible
limestone cliff at the base of the noun
tain. it has been very scientifically worked
under the superintendence of Mr. I'd
Williams, an experienced quarrymaD, un-
Gil it extends away back several hundred
feet under the mountain. 1t is now a
huge, arched cavern, some IS or 40 feet
high at the entrance and so feet high il
the interior, supported by MASSIVE stone
pillars which have been left as the work
progressed, the high vaulted roof, smooth
dry floor and capaciGus interior resemb
ling nothing more than the great cham
bers of the Mammoth Cave. In twenty
five years from now, this great cavern vii
he one Of the curiosties of the country
and will be visited by sight-seers from fal
and near. AS it is now, it is we'll worth
from the frequent blasts CT giant powder
as they boom from its hollow depths and