The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1890-04-17
AN IMPORTANT MOVEMENT.
Staunton Development Company.
It's Necessity, Objects, &c.

Deen awakened TO CIle necoSSlt! VI w.
operation and combined effort to place |
Staupton in its true light, that the out |
side world may know what we have |
and what we propose to do, to contribute |
to the progress, prosperity and wealth OF
our beautiful mountain city.
The Staunton Development Company
has been organized under the laws OF
Virginia. with ample power to enlarge
the boundries and administer to the
progress and prosperity of Staunton,
Augusta county, and the region of ter
ritory tributary to this centre.
The Company controls by purchase and
options about 1900 acres of land in and
around the city, and is composed of the
following officers: President, NJ. Erskine
Miller; Vice President, S. M. Yost; Treas
urer, W. p Tams; Secretary, w. j. Perry;
Directors l. Witt, B. f. Eakle, John
McQuaide. Andrew Bowling, S. NJ. Yost,
Jed Hotchkiss, ]. H. Wayt, o. K. Lap
ham, Chicago; H. H. Fay, Boston; H.
NJ. Bell. Staunton; W. L. Fleming,
Richmond; Geo. H. Hull. New York.
Authorized capital, $2,O00,000; 1900,
600 of which will be issued in shares of
800 each; payable 10 per cent cash and
II per cent monthly.
The necessity for some such an organ
ganization as the Development Company
represents, has been long felt. The
many unequaled advantages which the
locality possesses; the central position
of Staunton in the great, beautiful Val
lev of Virginia; its seats of learning; it's
public institutions; its financial agencies;
it's intelligent enlightened, public-spirit-
ed citizens; the high character of its
business men; its salubriOus and equa
BILE climate; its unsurpassed healthful-
ness; the untold and as yet undeveloped
mineral and agricultural wealth OF the
immediate territory tributary to the
place, combine to give unusual promi-
hence and Importance to the city. In
dividual effort has been and is unequal
to the work of utilizing these advanta-
GEES Relying upon such the progress
of the city has not been commensurate
either with the spirit of the age or the
intrinsic values which lie dead all
around. The ebb and flow of population
has been about equaliZed, and the in
crease far short Of what it should be.
Only through organization and co-opera-
ton can business enterprise be enlarged
to reflect the natural advantages and
and wealth possessed. This necessity
has been SO apparent that the Staunton
Development Company has been organ
lied as a central force to inaugurate and
prosecute improvements, concentrate
energy and capital invite industrial
plants, and institute movements which
will have for their object the building
up of an important and controlling cen
tire of trade and business.
Staunton is the most prominent and
important educational centre between
the Potomac river and the Gulf 1t has
four female seminaries for the higher
education Of young ladies, with twenty
two States represented by their patrons,
under the auspices of the Episcopal,
Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutheran
denominations, respectively. A Paro-
chiaI school supported principally by
Catholics. for the education of boys and
girls, with an attendance of about 15O
scholars classical and military acad-
emy for young men, accommodating
about $50 students, most of whom are
from distant States A system of public
schools unsurpassed in their high char
acter and efficiency, both for white and
colored children, in distinctly separate
buildings, and attended by about SOC
pupils.
The State institutions for the educa-
ton of the deaf and dumb and blind,
and for the care of the insane, are loca-
ted at Staunton, with appropriations for
their support from the State treasury OF
nearly $4,000 annually.
Handsome and commodious churches
representing the Presbyterian. Episco-
pal, Methodist, Baptist. United Brethren,
Lutheran, and Catholic denominations
are well attended,; and there are several
Baptist persuasion; a business college;
hotels; Y.M.C. A. building costing $35, 600;
fine opera house; paid fire department,
with electric alarm system, and numer-
Gus other advantages not usually found
in a town of its size. There are various
industries in operation at Staunton,
among them extensive fannie acid
works, the largest in the United States.
if not in the world; a shoe factory.
two furniture factories, two iron fOun-
dries, four or five planning mills, -four
ing mill, plaster mill, wagon factory,
several brick factories, two fertilizer
manufactures, and every trade and
mechanical occupation is represented by
skilled, intelligent workmen, with four
life insurance companies, building asso-
Citations and other business organiza-
tions The city is lighted by electricity,
is accommodated by splendid water
works on the gravity system, costing
over 100000, and street railway is
under contract.
With population of over 10000.
schools, academies, seminaries, churches,
banks. newspapers, State charitable in
situations, and high condition of
social and educational attachments,
Staunton possesses attractions rarely
equaled in any portion of the country.
1t is surrounded by a progressive and
prosperous agricultural people; hedged
in by minerals of almost every deserip-
ton; at the junction of two great trunk
railway lines, reaching to every part of
the Union; within easy distance OF three
competing coal and coke districts, where
fuel for manufacturing and domestic
purposes. can be had at a minimum cost
offering inducements to capital and
immigration, for industrial pursuits and
residence comforts, equal to any other
locality in the entire country.
The timber resources are almost be-
yond computation. Within radius of
100 miles of Staunton is a greater variety
of woods of superior quality than can be
found In any similar area of territory.
Forests Of original growth cover one
fourth of the lands. White oak, post
oak, chestnut oak, white and yellow
tulip poplar, black walnut, hickory,