The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1897-07-27
THE DEAD TOWNS IN OCONEE COUNTY.
HISTORIC PLACES OF INTEREST
Cunnel Hill on Stump House Noun
tain was Once n Thriving, Busy
Town.

tain was Once n Thriving, Bus:
@ Town.
: Anderson Intelligencer.
:. Oconce has more dead towns to tn,
( square miles probably than any Count,
) In the State-not merely tor tina
, have quit growing, or that .., in tn,
, collapse that follows an exploded boom
) but defunct, obliteratcd, forgotten
, Pickens County has two such, For
| George or Keowee, and Pickensville
, and Anderson County one, Anderson
, vile, where the beautiful mountain
, streams with their beautiful lndiar
names-the Seneca and the Tugaloo-
, rush into each others embrace.
IL cannot, OF course, be twisted into
any discredit OF Oconee that the sites
OF these dead towns of another age and
, OF other conditions are within her bor.
ders, for Walhalla, Westminster, Sen.
eca and Newry are gems that bespangle
her background OF blue.
Besides these places of interest Oco.
nee Station, an Indian trading post in
the long ago, Tunnel Hill, that sprung
into life when the builders of the great
Blue IL dge Railroad set down to hJre
through Stump House Mountain, and
ola Plckens, that gave up the ghos
with the ACKNOWLEDGMENT Of old Pick
ems District-O couee is historic in that
her soil holds the ashes Of Colonel Ben
Cleveland, Gen. Andrew Pickens and
Horseshoe Robinson, heroes all, of the
Revolution.
As one stands for the irst time ON
the summit of Tunnel Hill and peers,:n-
To the!yawning mouth Of the dismantled
shaft or turns to gaze upon the i'm
mense pile OF tragmentary granite ly-
Ing around, one cannot repress the ludi-
crous idea that at some rcmote perioo
OF its existence Stump House Mountain
had relieved itself OF an attack of geo
logical nausea, SO to speak, by vomit-
ing fit.
Tne oppressiveness of the picture of
perfect desolatlon that marks the scene
to-day Is intensified by the rctle tion
that for a time u tide of busy life surged
over the mountain, whilst through its
depths was being pushed the most stu
per dous engineering feat OF the time.
| Forty lour years ago the solitude of the
ages hitherto unbroken was rudely dis
turbed, and for six years the old noun
tain groaned and trcmbled in the mex
orable grasp of science, and then al.
most as suddenly the primaeval still
ness resumed its sway and the coon,
the catamount and the bear roamed
again over their old haunts.
1t will surprise many at the present
day, especially those who go there for
the first time, to know that on the sum
NIT OF Tunnel Hill where but one house
now stands, and it constructed of the
remains OF several Others, was once n
busy town Of fifteen hundred people, in
Guiding five hundred laborers who work
ed in and around the tunnel. The town
had hotel, boarding houses, a school,
church (Cathollc) and the usual com
N Ilt hsI h
eral stores. The contractors ran q store
and Mr.. Wesley Pltchford, whose son.
MIR. q. w. PitchfOrd, is now one OF the
leading merchants of Walhalla, sold
goods there, a. did others.
One OF the drinking saloons stood
within a few yards Of the shaft (No. y
and was run by San francesca PiZarro
Sancho, an Italian, who, just on the
eve OF the war, murdered Thomas Har-
rison, OF Oconee. on the stone pave
ment in front OF the old hotel at Pen
dleton. Sancho's father and younger
brother, Benato, went to Tunnel Hill
direct from Italy. The big rock fill at
the eastern mouth OF the tunnel was
put there by the old man, who, day
after day, carted stone from the tunnel
with his little mule. The old fellow
never learned word OF English, so
that the imprecations heaped upon his
little mule were couched IN sulpnurous
Italian, which made no difference with
the mule.
When the war came on Benato fought
valiantly for the South. The laborers
were nearly all Irish and Catholics, and
came mostly from the North. When
the work was suspended in the latter
part OF 1859 for lack of an appropria-
tion by the State, for the great road
was State enterprise, most of the men
went back North, and it is altogether
probable that many OF them found their
way into tAe Union armies and met in
the shock of battle many of the men
whom they knew and with whom they
worked at Tunnel Hill. Oae OF those
whoJ stayed S)lth wash Fletcher, an
Englishman, who had the distinction
OF being the smallest man in the Second
s. G.. II nes.
There were several contractors dur
ing the progress of the work, Arson
Bangs 81 Co., Humbird, Hitchcock 81
Co., and one other, all Northern men,
| OF course. No one knows exactly how
much money was expended on the work,
but am assured by one who was in
position to make fair estimate that it
was at least one million dollars.
The tunnel is one and one. fourth
miles long, and the entire distance is
oh' ouG - ooiiu ioSh' hc "toUcIu SAlU
is SIXTY feet higher than the eastern,
which Is to say, the grade through the
tunn Il is forty eight feet to the mile.
| There are four shafts, numbered from
east To west, and the greatest depth,
two hundred and forty feet, is naar
shaft number two. Some sixteen hun
drcd linear feet is unfinished, which
SHOWS that practically ee.fOurths of
the work was completed But forty
five feet between shafts mum bers one
and two Is unfinished, and the rest is
between numbers three and four From
four to western mouth is completed.
have been JOid by q reliable man who
worked there that at shaft number
four u mule was let down to draw stone
to foot OF shaft and that q year later
that same mule walked out into day
light at western entrance apparently
none the worse for his long subterra-
mean imprisonment. The company
made their own blasting powder Of pot
ash and the charcoal of poplar, chest.
nut and willow. Some vestiges of the
powder house, located near eastern en-
trance and also near tho beautiful lssa
quenah Falls, are yet to be seen.
Near this spot a young man, a stranG.
er, who had taken n sub-cOntract, was
murdered one night by some of the
toughs about the place In the belle
that he had lots of money The story
goes that they got no money and thai