Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1895-07-27
THE WEST VIRGINIA CENTRAL
A Trip Through the Great Coal and
Timber Fields.


see the rest of the State or learn of it.
wealth. its greatness, the beauty o
its scenery, the progress in the de
velopmeut of it's mineral resources
the writer OF this article has endeavor
ed to entertain you with such infor
nation as to impress you with oul
States financial greatness-to give
you some reasons of feeling proud o
being West Virginian.
By starting at Piedmont and taking
the West Virginia Central the travel
er will at once penetrate into the
depths of enormous timber lands
stretching for miles on either side O
the North Branch of the Potomac ant
West Virginia Central, whose noun.
tain sides were SO thick ten years age
with the growth of valuable poplar
black walnut, oak, cherry. maple
spruce, and white pine that the wood
man had to clear away with his az
all timber that he might enter into
the interior to cut down such lumber
as his wants demanded. Trees there
are from one to five feet in diameter
and towering up some 200 feet high
the growth of centuries, how straight
how lofty, and how grand do they
look down upon you'll What source
of wealth to the owneri Can you
wonder that the men who paid from
two to five dollars an acre and reape6
a thousand got wealthy? Passing or
along the winding road up steer
grades and down into ravines we came
to Dobbiu, German, and Bayard, the
first three lumber towns along the
road, having each population o
from three to five hundred, whose
people are exclusively engaged in the
lumber business. I learn a great
deal of spruce pine in the for.n O.
laths, boards, and joists handled by
the lumber dealers of Martinsburg are
shipped from here. They take large
log here and in ten seconds it passes
through brace of saws and falls i'll &
heap Of lumber beneath.
The writer spent day fishing for
the speckled trout along the noun
tain streams in and around Bayard
and German with no increduluous re.
suits. To save the reputation of the
Immortal three" Myers, Blondel,
and Honlrich, we will forbear.
Twenty miles farther we reach
Thomas, the center of the coal and
coke fields, town of thousand peo-
pie, whose employment is digging
coal and burning it in the 400 ovens
that line the road on either side, from
Thomas to Coketon aud Douglass,
two miles away. The ovens all ablaze
at night with their fiery mouths
belching up the smoke and flame form
a fitting picture on which Talmage
might find food for expatiation on the
torrents of the doomed, or one could
almost feel the Shade of Dante in his
Inferno saying. Look how thou
enter here" or more plainly from the
cracking Goals, Hear the eternal
doom echoing forth" The writer got
through safe he need not add and as
he leaves Douglass the train ascends
steep of mountain climbing, SOC
feet above the base, while as many
more there are to reach the top. This
Grand Canon is girdled again and
again by the untiring train, affordiug
view most picturesquely beautiful.
The State can boast of none more
grand in conception and majestic in
domain-the Swiss Alps are not. 1t
was daring undertaking to build a
railroad through and along such lofty
hills and towering peaks of the Allie
ghenies, 5000 feet above sea level.
| Davis is reached by mile road run
ming in from Thomas and is the
greatest lumber town in the State. 1t
has population of about 1000 people.
| The hills around Davis are all barren
of trees. 1t is the best business town
along the West Virginia Genital
they have large stores and do more
business-but unless something be
done towards keeping the town up, in
few years the lumber interests will
be noticeably less in Importance, and
ten years more OF the axe defamation
of the forest, will leave the town high
and dry, alone and abandoned, unless
some other industries build up and
make up the loss.
Elkins, the home of our distin-
guished Senator, needs more than
passing notice. 1t is an entirely new
town, beautifully situated in fine
valley with hills all around, on the
west side OF which is located on a
sloping hill the beautiful residences
of Senators Elkins and Davis and Mr..
Kerens, the three great pioneers Of
our Mountain State in developing its
wealth and building up its interests,
men who deserve the gratitude OF OUT
people if for nothing else. They have
spent their lifetime almost among a
rough class of people; they have open.
ed up thousand mines and started
several hundred saw mills and crown.
ed their work by building a railroad
through these almost insurmountable
hills and thus opened an outlet to
carry down to the markets of the East
the lumber and coal and other products
forming the material wealth of the
State-crowning their deeds with
glory in ages to come.
! What traveller through that country
will not notice now the hum of hun
dred saw mills and tanneries all O.
which were silent last fall wher
their interests were threatened by the