Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-11-19
duck island, where hunters will find


house in which George Washington first
met the widow Gusts, the village of the
Pamunkey Indians. or the battlefield
OF Seven Pines This is historic ground,
all around here. The Terminal I'M
provement Company is not mere town
lot selling organization. II has a good
thing and il knows it, and intends to
improve it up to its highest point. The
three miles OF deep-water front the com.
pany own is gold-mine OF itself. and |
will confidently write here that 1t will be
sold for more than the whole amount OF
the company's capital stock, which Is
$500, 600.
The fact that piling here is never at
tackled by the worms makes it the best
place for wharves on the Atlantic coast.
The Richmond and Dsnyille railway
knows this from experience, for while 1t
has TO reEewits boat wharves onthe river
below here about every eighteen months,
| it doesn't renew them here once In TWEEN
| IT, years. The Improvement Company
will improve Its holdings and will not
offer single lot until oil their work IS
done.
OF this improvement company hap
pen TO know several personally. The
president, w. Richie Quarles, of Rich
mond, is an old friend Of mine. He is a
banker, and one OF the foremost men of
affairs in Richmond. Maurice Laupen-
himer, tho vice president, is an officer OF
the Arrow Steamship Company Of Balti-
more. T.. Wilkinson, the secretary and
treasurer. isirom Philadelphia originally,
and has been aresident here for seventeen
years. lie is the mayor of West Point,
and has signalized his citizenship by
being one OF the most progressive men
here. 10 YVES he that started the system
Of Artesian wells slx years ago. lie has
started a hosiery-factory, an immense
brck-yard. and been for years leader
in everything for the benefit OF the city.
G. @. Thompson, Of Stanton, Is well
known 10 your people as one of the most
successful OF the men who have been
forwarding the new progress that has
struck your section, and he is putting
into service hero his long and
profitable experience gained in the
Valley. In taking advantage Of
every natural advantage Of a
locality and in impressiDg its
value on the pubic mind he has no supc-
nor. among the directors are Sol. Haas,
the traffic manager of the Richmond and
Danvile Railroad Company G.. w.
Westburv, an officer OF the same railway
system, and IN enterprising young citl-
zen of West Point Charles II. Simpson,
prominent merchant OF Richmond (;
Henry X. Pollard, now OF Richmond,
and formerly a prominent member of
the House of Delegates and 5. Cohen,
the head of the Cohen Company, Of
Richmond, known all over Virginia.
THE FUTURE or WEST POINT.
II is rather audacious for small mo-
dern prophet to add his predictions
about a town 10 those OF Commodore
Meury. A man like him, with his uni
versal knowledge of the trade roads of
the world, both by water and by land,
stood high up on a hill and could see
far into the future with accurate vision.
The fact that he said thirty-fiye years
AGO that the commerce OF the great
Southwest would pour into tho salt
water OF the ocean at West Point, and
that il Is doing that to-day proves
his far-sighted accuracy. But we
minor prophets of 1890 must also
have our say. 1t is true that our pre-
dictions are based on what is almost
actually passing under our eyes, but
that should not lessen our credit, which
mainly lies in being bold enough to put
it in words. VirPinians are timid peo-
Die about progress, and even though the
rising sun OF greatness for the old Com
monwealth is now forcing its rays into
their dazzled eyes their first impulse is
f. stone the prophet who tells them of it
and insists to them that this sun is on its
wavup TO the zenith. So timid and be-
hind the times ere we Nirginians in
some respects that We thi 1k the laws OF
progress will be arrested in our case
and that the sun which hns gone high in
the heavens for other people will be
stopped on the horizon for us. The en-
terprises that have had the pleasure of
writing up--for it is genuine pleasure
to chronicle the advance OF old Vir-
ginia-have in every case far exceeded
up 10 date the futures that l predicted
for them, and on that, as well as on
Commodore Maury's predictions, | wish
TO rest what / shall say of West Points
future. To my mind it will be one of
the largest cities on the Atlantic
coast. You see now appearing in
the public prints sales of water
fronts ut Norfolk and its vicinity
amounting to from half million to a
million dollars. You will see the same
with the Terminal improvement Com
pany's water-fronts here. You will see
another railroad here and that very soon.
The Chesapeake and Ohio railway will be
forced TO como here. Its traffic which is
reaching giant proportions, which largely
comes over the Richmond and Allegheny
division. can reach deep water mt this
place in less than half the distance by rail
from Richmond. This is point the
Chesapeake and Ohio cannot long ignore
nor can it overlook the importance Of
building q line from its main stem at
Hanover Courthouse to West Point The
rapid growth of West Point, with its
new manufactures making valuable
freight to the interior, Will make it
point OF importance to which the build
ing of twenty-five miles of road will be
as nothing. Nor will the Rich
mond and Danville system, which
is reaching out for the coke
fields of New river, fail to see
that a road from Nicholas county,
w. Va, the northern edge Of those
fields-throueh Browns Gap in the Blue
Ridge to West Point, distance OF 100
miles, will give it just about 100 miles
shorter haul to deep water than tho Nor
folk and Western. which now hauls the
same coal for shipment In fact, 1t may
be said of first deep-water point that
all railroads lead to it, and in time all
the great railroads of Virginia will DO
heading for West Point in fulilment Of
Maury's prophecy.
With all these things, the past, the
present, and the future. one cannot
escape the conclusion that the city OF
West Point has an immense future before
it. future in the unexampled prosperity
of which the Terminal improvement
Company is to be grand factor.
II g. r.