Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-01-30
A NORFOLK & WESTERN TOWN
IN THE VALLEY!
The Pioneer Enterprise Of Norfolk 6 West
Grn C3pltalBtS III Augusta County.

ThG Pioneer Enterprise Of Norfolk 6 West
ern Capitalists il Augusta County.
A TOWN SITE TO DE DEVELOPED NEXT Tt
BASIC CITY-WHAT THE NORFOLK 6
WESTERN HAS ALREADY DONE-A
STRONG COMPANY-MANUFACT
PLANTS TO BE LoCATED-A FINE SITE
FOR ELECTROMAGNETIC sHENANDo-
All VALLEY To TEAM WITH INDUSTRIES.
&C., &C, sc.
reported for the Staunton VINDIcATos.]
BASIC CITY. Jan. %.
An event long hoped for in Augusta
county is at last come to pass
For years past-ever since Roanoke COM
menced its wonderful career with the aid
of the Norfolk & Western Ry. Co., our
people have looked with envy at the towns
and enterprises located along that road and
receiving its encouragement and substan-
tlal aid. There was good cause for the
envy. On looking over an official statement
OF that Railway Company, which has been
blessing to Southwest Virginia, [ find
that i'll the last eight years since the road
was purchased by those ROW in control of it
the Norfolk & Western capitalists have
invested in enterprises along it's lines
81, $40, $50. In this list are our near neigh
bors the Buena Vista Co. $4,000, and the
Buena Vista Iron Co. $50, 600. The largest
investment is in the Southwest Va. In
10 G79b 0S0 op1 Tho o1loc} &c
the Roanoke Rolling Mills Co. S13, GOO. There
are twenty enterprises in all which have
gotten aid from these capitalists who are
organized under the name Of the Virginia
Development Co. Besides this, there has
been invested directly OF indirectly from
the influence of the Norfolk q Western road
and its managers $25. 000, 900 in iron max
ing and dependent industries; So ,0O0,0 600
in coal and coke companies, and 1888 ,0G0. 000
in Land companies and miscellaneous en-
terprises. all this in eight years
But the company does not rest here.
This week, as a result Of the visit to this
State last October Of the British Iron and
Steel Institute, the N orfolk & Western Co. s
solicitor, Mr. J. [. Doran, sailed for Eu-
rope to discuss with English and Dutch
capitalists propositions for much heavier
investment OF foreign capital in enterpri-
ses with which his company IS connected
and the company is in addition about to
make vigorous and organized effort to
get Northern farmers to settle in the
wheat growing lands of Virginia.
With such record in the past, and pros
pect for the future, of building up the coun-
try through which it runs, it will not be
surprising that the announcement the
Norfolk u Western capitalists have inau-
gurated large enterprise in Augusta coun-
ty, should be hailed with pleasure.
Since the purchase and absorption in
to it's line of the Shenandoah Valley Ey..
there has been an active looking into the
resources and locations along it's route,
Naturally, the site of Basic City, The City
of the Iron Cross. as it is called-from the
fact that here the Norfolk s. Western
track going North and South is crossed
by the Chesapeake & Ohio track going
East and attracted their attention.
But that site was already occupied. Then
they resolved to do the next best thing and
adjoin it.
WHO THE COMPANY ARE.
The company with the title of the Basic
City Development Co.. organized to de-
velop the site thus selected, is an interest
ing study from the fact that it is the pio-
neer expedition of the Norfolk & Wes-
tern capitalists into this locality. It is also
interesting from the other fact that few
companies organized in Virginia have so
much-as the financial phrase goes behind
them'' in the way of influence as this one
has. 1t has an authorized capital Of $50, 900
and is differed as follows:
The President is 6. r. w. Armes of
Philadelphia. late Treasurer of the Shen-
andoah Valley Ry., and now of the Norfolk
& Western Ry. The Vice President is S.
Med. Tate Of Morganton, N. c., the Ma
tional Bank Examiner. The Secretary and
Treasurer is NJ. w. Quarles of Basic City
the brother Of the General Manager of
the Basic City Mining, Manufacturing
and Land Co., to whose skill and ener-
gy in that position the score of manufac-
turing plants now about ready to turn on
the steam in that new city, and the scores of
bear testimony.
The Board Of Directors is composed Of
those officers and the following H.
Sands of Roanoke, Vice President and Gen
eral Manager of the Norfolk & Western
Ry.; D. w. Flickwir, Superintendent of
the Shenandoah Valley Division Of the \ or
Folk & Western Ry.: W. S. Gooch OF Roa-
noke. President of the Basic City Cal
Works, and j. Alex. Bumgardner, of
Augusta, President Of the Basic City
Match Company. The two last named
gentlemen are we'll known to your readers
and have been st the front in the active
development OF this section of Virginia
ever since it commenced.
THE SITE TO BE DEVELOPED.
rode to-day over the five hundred and
thirty acres the company has bought, and
from the height which is to be used as The
residence portion, surveyed tie level horse
shoe bounded by the river, which is to bt
the site for manufacturing plants. II is
tc my mind Simply an extension of the
marvellous little city-it adjoins. The broad
avenues of Basic City run to its boundary
and can be extended On the same line they
now run. Looking to the South, you see
the acres OF factory plants in Basic City
rooted i'll and with most Of their machinery
in. 1t is these acres, take it, that form
part OF the reason for the new enterprise
When Basic City was laid out, its founders
had little idea Of how remarkable it's growth
would be, and the acres they reserved fol
manufactures along the river bank hav,
nearly all been built up. SO that the new