Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-09-03
Established in 1913.
HISTORIC ST. CLAIRSVILLE.
It Was Vigorous Town in its Youth
full Days.
"Reminiscences of a Man who Came Here
in IS25.fand Has Been Here
Ever Since.

Ever Since.
In the year 1925 youth came into st.
Clairsviile. He is living here yet, hale
and hearty, and with remarkably vigOr-
GUS memory, he can at will pass before his
mental retina, the appearance OF the
town at that day, the scenes in which our
busy ancestors ignred, and the persons
and characteristics of those ancestors.
When he came to it, this was much
better town from business standpoint
than it is now. 1t was also of much great
er relative Importance in the region, was
in fact the only place of Importance for
many miles. Persons came from Pow
hatan to trade. Bellaire, Bridgeport and
Martins Ferry had not then begun to as
sumo the importance which the last de-
cades have given them. Wheeling was
only village, and her manufacturing
was no more extensive and varied than
that of st. Clairsville, nor did her stores
offer any better facilities for barter or
purchase The biggest, busiest" and
what shall we say-was then no town at
all. Agriculturalists from her sun kissed
hills were compelled, by reason of their
lack of grinding mills, to haul their wheat
to the Patterson and Kinsey Mills east of
here. With the first light snow they
started with their grain laden on sleds,
and passed through here in long trains.
They must then, as they do yet, have
borne certain individual marks, by
which they were distinguished, for our
grandfathers, whom we know as grave,
reverend and hoary- headed, but who were
then stirring and mischievous boys,
would, when their sliding cavalcade had
begun to pass through the town shout,
"Here comes Barnesyille," and play all
sorts of pranks with the drivers, catch
ing on behind, pelting them with snow
balls, and guying them with the nimble
wit of youth.
In the winter of 1926 -'26, when our
youth first saw the place, its general top
ography was quite different from the
present. The pike had not then been
built, though grading had been done at
several places, and the ground was torn
up on the hills on both sides of the square.
The buildings were almost exclusively
of logs, and one story in height. A frame
structure was found now and then,
though the old-time brick was more fire.
quent, as brick making was settled in
dustry of the town. There were no
buildings east of the town on "Greasy
Hill" except two, one of these being the
residence of Alex Mcmillan, tailor, To-
Gated near where Mr.. Walter Darrah now
lives, and the other the brick structure
now occupied by Benz. Humphrey, at
that time by John Thompson. The west
end was but little built up, the hill where
Benz. Dickey now lives, being crowned
by large cabin. Marietta street exist
ed then as now, and was busy with stores
and factories.
The town must have been more pros
porous then, as it was certainly more
busy. There were industries of all sorts
carried on by its people. In those times
articles which are now made at large
manufacturing plants, by the aid of
steam and machinery, were laboriously
pounded out and fashioned by muscle
and hand. Every town had to support
itself There was little shipping in of
implements or other articles from the
outside. Consequently no sooner did the
soil begin to yield its richness to cultiva-
ton, than there sprang up in every little
hamlet and beside every stream, mills,
factories, tanneries. The inner man was
not slighted, for there was on almost ev
cry farm distillery, for the production
Of the good old whisky, of which we are
told so much, but whic we can never
taste, because the very art of making it
has been lost. About that time citizen
ran brew-house too, where ale, porter
and beer were made in the good old Eng
lish style. This mans name was Hughey
Orr, and it is related of him that he was
much annoyed on coming to the post-of-
fee, to be saIuted with the "hoO, hoo,
hoo" of pet owl.
An odd sort of machine which is never
seen nowadays, was the horse-mill, mill
in which wheat was ground when the
power from the streams was lost by rea-
son of drought. Two of these unique
implements were in town, one on the
south common, and one on the north.
The latter was run by means of a large
tramp-wheel, to which motion was i'm
parted by tramping oxen.
Before the pike was built, the town
was on the great thoroughfare called
Zane's Road, east and west, from Wash
ington to the then metropolis of Ohio,
Chillicothe, and to Cincinnati. This
road, though not always passable for
wagons, was the best there was, and the
entire traffic, both passenger and freight,
passed through this place. Our inform
ant, often when boy, has counted fifty
wagons passing one after the other with
out break. Vast tdroves of cattle, horses,
hogs, sheep went by daily. The usual
quota of passengers each day was 25
to so coaches, loaded down. This made
the hotel business flourish, and long
strings of wagons were always to be seen
in the vicinity of the numerous hostelries
A Big Suit.
The following item taken from the
Winfield (Kas.) Daily Courier, will be OF
interest to the MANY friends of Mr.. Pol
lock in this county, he having been born
and raised in old Belmont: -. G. Pollock
has been retained by millionaire JOrdor
of our city, to defend him in suit fol
breach of promise brought in the U. S
Circuit Court. The plaintiff is fai