Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1890-11-28

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great business activity in JEFFERSON
county, namely, the new village OF
Bakerton and the Virginia ore bank.
Roth are located between the b. q y.
Railroad and the Potomac river
about six miles east of Shepherds
town and three miles west OF Har-
per's Ferry.
BAKERToN.
Bakerton is the name of the new
town that is being built up at Oak
| Grove school-house. 1t is two and
a-half miles from the main line of the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, by which
if is connected with a branch road
that Joins il at Keller's. The Wash
ington Building and Lime Company,
a corporation in which the Messrs.
Baker of Maryland are largely inter
ested. constructed the road and
bought the 45 acres of land where
the improvements are being made.
They have opened up large lime
stone quarry here and constructed
four patent kilns for the burning OF
lime. Each week 1000 bushels OF
lime are burned-about 90 car loads
which is shipped to Washington and
points in Maryland. From forty TO
fifty men are constantly employed. A
steam drill cuts the holes into the
great beds of limestone, and dynamite
tears the masses asunder. Horses
and carts carry the broken stone 70
the top floor of the large building
containing the kilns. Here men feed
| them into the iron maws, from which,
two stories below, the lime is drawn
and wheeled into the cars that stand
right in front of the kilns. An in
clined plane, to be run by steam, will
shortly be put in operation, thus do
ing away with the horses and carts.
The stone will then be drawn directly
from the quarry to the kilns.
Already Bakerton is making fair
showing i'll a business way. There
have been erected the large three
decked kiln-house; u cooper shop
where five coopers turn out 2OO bar
rels a day; large store building,
where Strider q Engle do big gen
eral merchandise business under the
supervision of Mr.. Jesse A. Engle, Jr.;
seven new dwelling houses for the use
of the workmen. A tank, filled from
an artesian well, supplies water to the
works and the houses, and also to the
school building. Bakerton is post
office. and has three mails day. Mr..
Engle, the manager of the store, Is
postmaster.
Mr.. S. w. Bratt is the efficient man
ager of the company's business at Ba-
kerton, and the lime turned out I'M
der his supervision is the best on the
market. Every day a locomotive
comes in to bring empty cars and take
away the loaded ones. The road, we
understand, is controlled by the com
pany that runs the lime works. A
telephone connects Bakerton with
Keller station.
Every Saturday is pay day, and
each week considerable sum o.
money is put in circulation. Most OF
the employees are men from the VI
cinty, so the money is spent at home.
The farmers of that vicinity find that
Bakerton is of great benefit TO them.
They find ready sale for wood and al
most every sort of farm product at
the highest market prices. They also
have the privilege Of loading their
wheat at this point, thus saving many
miles of hauling over rough roads.
Messrs. Hodges and Lemen, of this
place, have been the principal wheat
buyers.
As may be seen from the above, Ba-
kerton is already a thriving place.
But it is more than likely that only
beginning has been made, for there
is well-defined impression that bet
ter times are to follow. There are
some persons who are so sanguine as
to predict that in a couple of years
more Bakerton will be lively town
of couple thousand inhabitants. We
hope it may be so.