The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-05-01
The Grottoes Company.

leasing real estate; of laying out the
same into town lots with all necessary
streets and alleys, and of improving the
same; of building and operating manu-
factories of iron, wood and clay, and of
coal aad cotton fabrics, and of encour-
aging and aiding Others in the erection
and operation of the same by donations
and subscriptions; of erecting and oper-
ating water works, gas works and cleo
tric works, and of selling the products of
the same: of building and operating
street railways, to be run by electric,
conducting hotels of mining, shipping
and transporting iron and other ores );
saving and preparing lumber; of Dor
rowing and loaning money, and of Civ
ing mortgages to secure the same; of
subscribing for, purchasing and holding
the stocks of other incorporated compa-
MES of owning and exhibiting caves
and caverns; and of doing any and all
things necessary and convenient for the
full and free exercise of any of the fore
going purposes
The minimum capital stock is fixed at
100000 in shares of the par valne of
500 each, with power in the board of
directors to increase the same, from time
to time, to $6,G00,0 900, and ito sell and
dispose of the same for such price and
on such terms as may appear to said
board to be for the best interests of the
company
1t has authority to hold as much as
100000 acres of land at one time. Its
principal Office is to be at The Grottoes,
Augusta and Rockingham counties, Va,
but it may establish branch offices wher-
ever it pleases. Maj Jed Hotchkiss, Of
Staunton, Va, is named in the charter
as the President of the company for the
first year.
We learn that the company will be
organized in a few days with a board of
directors and officers, including men
of standing and business tact and ener-
gy, representing several States. 1t will
then place ten thousand shares Of its
stock on the market at $50 per share,
(par value $500, on reasonable terms of
payment; each purchaser of four shares,
costing $40, will be entitled to a business
lot, of fair average value, on the payment
of $25. 1t is understood that when these
ten thousand shares of stock are sold,
the price will be advanced to $75 per
share, and the price of allotted lots to
81 each.
We are informed that this company
has secured, as the basis of its opera
tions, so, 900 acres of land, in a compact
and united body, at and near The Grot-
toes station of the Shenandoah Valley
railroad in the counties of Augusta and
Rockingham. These properties are, un-
doubleday. among the most valuable
that TN be found in the whole State of
Virgil Tia, since they embrace not only a
score or more of the noble farms on both
sides of the South river of the Shenan-
doah, in the very heart of the famous
Valley, which furnish over five thousand
res of level and we'll drained land av-
eraging 1900 feet above the ea-level, for
city lots, manufacturing sites, NC, but
also "a the wonderful Grottoes of the
Shenandoah, (Weyer's Cave and Cave of
the Fountains, which, now brilliantly
lighted by electric lights, challenge com
parison with any eaverns in the known
world; (2) Il large, comfortable and well
kept hotel, supplied with electric lights,
and bells in all rooms, and with first
class baths and other modern conven-
fences; (3) two fine water powers, one
now usel for the electric light plant,
now in operation, and for a saw and
Touring mill; the other formerly used
for mills and FORCES, ready for use for
some appropriate industry; az the cele
DRAFTED Mt. Vernon iron property, some
25,0)0 acres of land, embracing nearly
ten NIL IS of the western slope of the
Blue Ridge, along and near the line of
the Shenandoah Valley railroad, through
the whole length of which, where it can
be profitably mined, extends thick beds
of the best quality of brown hematite
llimonite) iron ores,-just such as give
reputation to Buena Vista, Glasgow.
Roanoke, and the other towns along the
Blue Ridge border of the great Valley of
Virg On this great property not only
have these iron ores been extensively
developed and proven by the manufac-
ture from them OF large quantities of
the est brands of pig and bar iron and
| blooms for boiler plates, but extensive
of fro lpiok n
tile and brick clays, glass sands, ochres,
etc, have been exposed, while most of it
is covered with a Vigorous growth of
Young timber adapted to many kinds of
manufacturing purposes.
We are compelled to say that we know
of no locality in Virginia that offers
greater local and surrounding induce
ments for the laying ont and building
| up OF large and prosperous Industrial
and resid entail city than this at The
Grottoes. The length and breadth of
it's great plain, through which the She
nandoah Valley railroad runs for five
miles, gives ample room for wide streets
and broad avenues, with generous lots
for bu ;iness and dwelling purposes it's
miles o. river and railway frontage will
enable the company to give ample
space to agreat number of room needing
industries; while from any and every
portion of the site the eye sweeps from
the Blue Ridge on the east to the great
North Mount lin on the west, for a dis
lance of neatly. thirty miles, and over
more than thousand square miles of
the eyer-delighting landscape of the
richest and most attractive portion of
the famous Shenandoah Valley.
1t is but four miles away, up river
valley, where a railway can be cheaply
constructed. to the Valley branch of the
great Baltimore & Ohio railroad, thus
placing at it's disposal, for all purposes,
two of the great railway systems of the
country, the Norfolk & Western (of
which the Shenandoah Valley will
be the main line of the northeast and
southwest travel, when extended to
Washington city, as it soon will be), and
the Baltimore & Ohio, both connecting
with that other great central east and
west system, the Chesapeake & Ohio, all