The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1897-07-29
The DEAD TOWNS IN OCONEE COUNTY.
HISTORIC PLACES OF INTEREST.
tain was Oncc a Thriving, Busy
Town.

Town.
Anderson lntclligencer.
Oconee has moro dead towns to the
square miles probably than any County
In tho State-nOt merely towns that
nave quit growing, or that are in the
collapse that follows an exploded boom,
but dcfunct, oblitcratcd, forgotten.
PickenS County has two such, Fort
George or Kcowec, and Pickensvillc,
and Anderson County one, Anderson
vilie, where the beautiful mountain
streams with thoir beautiful Indian
names-the Seneca and the Tugaloo-
rush into each others embrace.
1T cannot, OF course, be twisted into
any discredit OF Oconee that tho sites
OF these dead towns Of another agc and
Of other conditions arc within her bor.
ders, for Walhalla, Westminster, Sen
eca and Newry ure gems that bcspanglc
hor background Of blue.
Besidos these places of interest Oco-
nee Station, an Indian trading post in
the long ago, Tunnel Hill, that sprung
into life when tho builders of tho great
Blue II dge Railroad set down TO bore
through Stump House Mountain, and
old Pickens, that gave up the ghost
with the dismemberment OF old Pick
ems District . OtOnee 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 ono stands for tho irst time on
the summit Of Tunnel II i'll and pecrs,' n.
to thcsyawning mouth OF the dismantlcd
shalt or turns to gaze upon the i'm
mense pile OF fragmentary granite ly-
ing around, one cannot repress the ludi-
croUs idea that at some remote period
OF its existence Stump House Mountain
had relieved ilso. OF an attack OF geo.
logical nausea, 81 to speak, by q vomit-
ing fit.
The oppres sivencss of tho picture OF
perfect desolati0n that marks the scene
to-day is intensified by the renc t on
that for time Il tide OF busy life surged
over the mountain, whilst through it's
depths was being pushed the most stu
peLdous engineering feat OF tho timo
Forty. four years ago the solitude OF the
ages hitherto unbrOken was rudeIy dis
turbed, and for six years the old noun
tain grOaned and tremblcd in the mex
orable grasp Of science, and then al
most as suddenly the primacval still
ness resumed It's sway and the coon,
the catamount' and tho bear roamcd
again Over their old haunts.
1t will surprise many at tho 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 tho
Of several 'others, was once u
busy town of fifteen hundred people, in
five hundred labOrers who work
ed IN and around the tunnel. Tho town
had hotel. boarding houses, II school,
a church (Cathollc) and tho usual com.
plcmi Mt OF barroOms. There wcrc sew
IVA,
and Mr.. Wesley Pitchford, whose son,
Mr.. @. w. Pitchford, Is now one Of the
leading merchants OF Wulhalla, sold
goods there, as did others.
One oi the drinking saloons stood
within few yards Of tho shaft (No. y
and was run by San Francesca piZarro
an Italian, who, lust on the
eve OF the war, murdered Thomas IIar-
rlson, OF O1onee, on tho 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 couchcd in sulphurous
Italian, which made no difference with
the mule.
when the war camo on BenatO fought
valiantly for the South. The laborers
were nearly all Irish and Catholics, and
came mostly from the North. Whom
the work was suspended in the latter
part OF 1859 for lack of an appropria-
tion by the State, for the great road
was u State enterprise, most OF tho men
went back North, and 1t Is altogether
probable that many Of them found their
way into tho Union armies and met in
tho shock OF battle many of the mon
whom thoy knew and with whom they
worked at Tunnel Hill. One OF those
who, stayed South was0 Fletcher, an
Eng lisbman, who had tho distinction
OF being tho smallest man In the Second
8. G.. II llcs.
There wore several contractors dur.
ing the progress OF the work, Anson
Bangs & Co., Humbird, Hitchcock g.
Co., and one other, all Northern men,
Of course. No one knows exactly how
II uch money was expended on the work,
but | am assured By one who was in
position to make Il fair estimate that 1t
was at least one million dollars.
The tunnel is one and one fourth
milca long, and the entire distance IS
SOllo IOCh' hc WcSGcTu CXlU
is sixty feet higher than the eastern,
which Is to say, the grade through the
tunnel Is f0rJy.cight feet to tho mile.
There are four shafts, numbered from
east to west, and the greatest depth,
TWO hundred and forty feet, Is near
shaft number two. Some sixteen hun
drcd linear feet Is unfinished, which
shows that practically -fourths OF
the work was completed. But forty
live feet between shafts numbers one
and two 10 unfinished, and tho rest is
between numbers three and four. From
four to western mouth Is completed. |
have been told by q reliable man who
worked there that at shaft number
four q 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 tho worse for his long subterra-
mean imprisonment. The company
made thclr own blasting powder of pot
ash and tho charcoal OF poplar, chest.
nut and willow. Some vestiges of the
powder house, located near eastern en-