Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1889-08-18
TALK ABOUT TOWN.
Some of the Topics Wheeling People are
Discussing.
HOPING FOR NEW INDUSTRIES.
AuurOach Of the Oil Field, and Thoughts
Thereby Suggested.
4 LITTLE ANNEXATION PLAN.

''What Wheeling needs more than any
thing else" said an old merchant, noted
for his great success in the business world,
Yesterday, sis a greater diversity Of manu-
fsctures. Something has been done to
better the situation, in recent years, but
halt seems 10 have been called Just when
some of Us hoped batter era was dawn
inc. Some of our wide-awake young
men oueht to take hold of this idea, and
some of the older heads ought to give them
a liberal support and all the encourage
ment possible. Manufactures are what
makes city, and if we are to pull out oil
the rut We have been in for twenty years
past, we will have to 90 to work. we
have plodded along at a snaiPs-pace, as Is
shown by the fact we have gained but
about four thousand in population IN the
past ten years
LET me tell you some of the things l
think we ought to have here" continued
the old gentleman, as he wiped his glasses,
''In the first place, we ought
TO have a big structural iron and bridge
works. West Virginia is one OF the most
promising fields for the bridge builder In
America. Every county is traversed by
mountain streams, and all require to be
bridged at many points. We have erected
MANY bridges in the State, in recent years,
lint they form bat q small portion OF those
IN be built within the next decade. Unless
Wheeling does something, all this work
will 20 TO Ohio aud Pennsylvania bridge
building concerns; and this, too, while the
great iron and steel plants OF our city are
dragging along in a precariOus way on
nails, etc. Our manufactures recog-
nize the truth Of what have
said to you; and yet they do
nothing. There are other things present
ing as great an opening. We ought to
have had plata glass factory two years
sgo; and yet, when a skilled man came
here with $3.50, 600, the rest OF the capital
could not be raised. A car works and
locomotive works, on a proper scale,
would be decided 20. Look at the Ea-
sign works, at Huntington, which has
grown from nothing to be an immense con-
,ern, all in few years Something might be
done here in manufacturing encaustic tiles
also. and if there is anythingin tin-plate,
money could be made at it here as we'll as
n any other town. No doubt other In
iustries, which could be pro6tably in
lueurated here, will suggest themselves to
others, and there ought TO be action along
some of these lines"
People going to MOundsville are exer-
,ising themselves in kicking about the
round trip rate charged by the B. u 0.
Il is pretty generally conceded that 40
,ents from Wheeling and 90 cents from
Bellaire, is little too high.
-.
In proportion as the oil field draws near
10 Wheeling, people are becoming inte-
rested in the matter, and many are look
ng forward to the day when the Nail City
Of the days gone by will be entitled, for
reasons, if for none other, to
he appellation of Oil City. With an
almost unbroken ring of gushers and
,assers all around us, in Pennsylvania,
ohio, and our own State, the circle
If which is gradually narrowing, there Is
title doubt but that few more years will
zee the town very intimately aCquainte
with the production, barter and sale OF
crease. For a long time past, many have
been of the firm belief that the Little
and Taylorstown fields would
eventually be carried through to the river,
and this conviction has been materially
strengthened by the activity in leases in
the eastern portions OF Ohio and Marshall
counties, the promise of drilling in the
near future near Roney's Point, and by
the evident prOductiveness of the Stitt
well. Just back of Bellaire. A
line drawn through the Little
and Taylorstown fields
and projected to and across the river
strikes the Stitt well almost directly, and
il is likely that all along this line wells
will be eventually located, both In the
upper end Of Marshall and the lower end
of Ohio counties. Yesterday the first oil
from the tanks at the Stitt we'll was
pumped into the pipe line crossing the
river lust below BenwOOd, and shipments
by rail from Benwood will be heavy from
this time on. Thirteen wells are now
drilling in the Bellaire territory, and there
is no doubt but the yield from the west
end of the Taylorstown anticlinal will
be as heavy in time, as the area in Penn
sylvania. When shall we have the sand
tapped in West Virginia?
There is good deal Of quiet work going
on about town snent the election of new
Board of Gas Trustees and Superintendent
of the gas works, which event is not very
far removed.
-.
1t has been suggested in some quarters
that it would be a good thing for every
body to Join together and inaugurate the
coming State Fair with big parade of all
the organizations, both civic and military,
in this city and vicinity. II would only
need concerted action to make demon
stration which would pack Wheeling with
strangers, aud start the Fair of with the
biggest crowd it ever had. The entire First
regiment of military could be secured, and
the soldiers, supported by the civic organ
izations of the city, the fire department.,
and headed by two platoCns of twelve po-
lice each. wOuld make fine appearances.
No doubt the Labor organizations, the Odd
Fellows, X. of P, and other societies
would regard this as a patriotic and clever
thing to do, if the proper initiatory steps
could only be taken.
-.
The way the people Of Benwood, Bel
Hire and the lower wards of the city pat
ronizs the street car line on Sunday after
moons suggests the idea that few more
cars could be sdvsuteOusly used on the
the lower end of the line.
~
Said gentleman last night; wheel
ing could do a good stroke of business for
herself. and at the same time benefit con-
siderable number of people, if she would
take the proper steps to secure the annex
alton TO the corporation of the land ex-
tending from FOrty-eighth street south to
Borgs run. This land, extending from
the river TO the hill, and bisected