Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1890-02-13
The Railroad Outlook.
St. ClairSYille and the Coal Fields
ALONG THE PROPOSED RAILROAD
ROUTES.
Manufacturing Advantages.

ment Association, which is being printed
at the CHRONICLE. Itis self explanatory.
ST. CLAIRsvILLE is the county seat OF
Belmont County, the eighth in popula-
ton NOW about 60,000), and in natural
resources the equal of any county in
Ohio. By the census of 1880 it ranked
thirteen among the counties of Ohio in
the value of its manufactured products.
Since then the output has been greatly
increased by the enlargement of facto-
ries then in operation and the construct
tion of new concerns, so that the census
to be taken this year will exhibit largely
increased business in manufacturing.
The soil is underlaid with limestone, and
is under high state of cultivation. Its
coal fields will be exhibited further on.
Public buildings, costing about $780,
| 900, have recently been completed in
St. Clairsville, and within year two of
the handsomest and completest church
edifices in Eastern Ohio-one of stone,
the other of pressed brick. The coming
season large and modern hotel will be
built. The public school building is a
large and substantial three-story brick
structure The schools rank high. In
the building is growing library.
Beautiful for situation" is st. Clairs-
vile. Around it is an agricultural coun-
try unsurpassed in beauty and wealth,
and beneath it thousands of acres of
coal. The farmers are enlightened, pros
porous, and contented. Good roads
radiate in all directions from the town
-four of them turnpikes, one the Ma
tional Road. Branches of the Baltimore
and Ohio and Cleveland, Lorain and
Wheeling railroads reach the town, and
four trains per day arrive and depart
over each road. Its facilities for ship
ping by rail are unsurpassed by any town
in the county, except Bellaire. Coal is
now furnished on the cars at 4 &c per
bushel.
RAILROAD POSSIBILITIES.
Two through lines of railway point in
this direction, and the construction of one
or the other through this town in the near
future seems logical conclusion. Sur
veys were made from ST. ClairSville toVal-
ley Junction two years ago, looking to the
extension of the Valley Railroad to the
Baltimore and Ohio system, and during
the present winter surveys through here
were made by the Wheeling and Lake
Erie. The line surveyed from Adena
Tin the southeast corner of Harrison
County, through st. Clairsville presents
the most favorable route for the latter
to reach Bellaire and a connection with
the Baltimore and Ohio. The grades
and alignment are good, the line short
ened about ten miles, and the cost for
rights f-way. on the st. Clairsville line
would be nothing as compared with that
down the river, via. Martins Ferry. For
handling through business, the st.
Clairsville route is greatly preferable, in
that the delays incident to transit
through several miles of streets (where
the speed of trains is necessarily slow
would be avoided, it is directly through
the heart Of the coal field, described here
after, while the river route barely touches
it, and at the same time the local bust
ness of the cities of Wheeling and
Martins Ferry could be reached. Going
by St Clairsville, ample and convenient
terminal facilities can be obtained at
Bellaire, at moderate cost, the road
running into unoccupied ground in the
heart of the city, alongside the Baltimore
and Ohio yards, or, if the Valley line ex-
tension is built by the former corpora
tion, directly into its own yards; while
approaching Bellaire from up the river,
about one mile through the city would
have to be traversed, at great expense
for right-of- way and inconvenience in
operating after constructed, in order to
reach suitable ground for terminals.
From information in our possession,
we feel authorized to tender free right
of way to any company that will con-
struct this piece of road.
COMPARATIVE DISTANCES.
The tonnage afforded the railroads by
Lake ports is immense and growing, and
is especially valuable to lines from these
parts because of the fact that cars loaded
with coal can return loaded with ore and
lumber
1t is important that the coal shall be a
quality that will command ready mar
ket, and that the haul shall be as short
as possible. In both of these particulars
the St. Clairsville line via. Cadiz and
Valley Junction, surpasses most of the
existing lines, and in the matter of dis
tance all now contemplated.
The line proposed is shown to be II
miles shorter to Cleveland than the
Cleveland and Pittsburgh road, 35 miles
shorter than the Cleveland, Lorain and
Wheeling, and miles nearer than the
Cambridge Goals. 1t shortens the dis
tance to Sandusky, as compared with the
Baltimore and Ohio, As miles, and 10
miles, as compared with the Wheeling
and Lake Erie to Monroeville, and Bal
timore and Ohio. 1t shortens the dis
tance to Toledo 10 miles, as compared
with the Wheeling and Lake Erie, As
miles, as compared with the Baltimore
and Ohio and Wheeling Lake Erie, from
Monroeville, and Is miles as compared
with the Cleveland, Lorain and Wheel
ing and Wheeling and Lake Erie, from
Massillon. To Detroit, it is As miles
nearer than the Baltimore and Ohio,
Wheeling and Lake Erie, and Michigan
Central, and 10 miles shorter than by
Wheeling and Lake Erie and Michigan
Central. All calculations for the Wheel
ing and Lake Erie based upon the sup
position that it will be built by Martins
Ferry.
The country traversed by the proposed
line is unsurpassed for agricultural pur.
poses, and about twenty-three miles of il
comprises the best undeveloped coal field
in Ohio. A tunnel 200 feet in length
takes the road through the ridge at this
place, and thence the line is down the
valley of jug Run, near the mouth of
] which short tunnel brings it to the
, crossing of the Cleveland, Lorain and
Wheeling r. r., near Wheeling Valley
station. The bridge over Wheeling
Creek at that point and over ConnOtton
Creek at Philadelphia Roads are the only