Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-03-26
SPECIAL
Meeting of tie Board of Trade.
Think the Electric Company Asks
Too Much,

A special meeting of the Board of
Trade of Marietta was called for Sat
urday evening and in response to tho
call quite number of members wero
present at the rooms of the Marietta
Club at the appointed time. The object
of the meeting was to have a confer
ence with Mr.. Lewis, at his request, in
regard to the proposed electric line
connecting Centre Belpre, Belpre and
Marietta. Mr.. Lewis, who was not
present at the meeting is represent
ing body of Columbus capitalists
who are at present operating an cleo
trio line or lines in Columbus and are
desirous Of building tie proposed line
between this city and Centre Belpre.
AS above stated, Mr.. Lewis was not
present, owing to the fact that he was
compelled to be absent arranging for
committee to assist him in taking up
subscriptions for the line, to be gotten
in the vicinity of the right of way.
Dr. F. P. Ames was present and rep
resented him, and stated to the meet
ing that the citizens of the western
end of the county were all very much
in favor of having some better means
of communication with Marietta thai
they are now afforded. He said that a
great deal of business is thrown to
Parkersburg that should come to Ma
rietta, and would undoubtedly como
here if there were some good method of
transportation to permit III to be
brought here.
He spoke of the inconvenience of
getting to and from ParKersburg by
means Of the ferry facilities, and also
the very expensive SIDE of the situation
as it now stands. He said that he had
looked up the matter of tonnage some
since the electric road project had been
talked of and found lhat the canning
factory at Belpre uses about fifty tons
of tomatoes annually during the sea-
son of it's operation and that each OF
the truck gardeners between Belpre and
Centre Belpre also hauls to market OF
a shipping point every year about fifty
tons of vegetables, and that during the
winter season, when they can haul
anything to or from market, they are
usually to be seen hauling fertilizers
or other stuff homefor use on the farm
He stated to the Board that in the
time Mr.. Lewis had been working the
matter up in the neighborhood of the
two villages, that he has secured about
$1,700 in subscriptions.
| The proposition that was made by
the Board through Mr.. Lewis was tha
the company would build the road i
they could raise $25,OOO in subscrip
tions in this place and along the lint
of the road.
Both Mr.. Follett and Mr.. Orator
stated Cnat they had told the represen
tative that they thought it would b'
useles to try to get twenty Thousand
dollars in this city by subscription, a
the people here have already subscrib
ed quite literally to different project
and it is now nearly impossible to ge
anyone TO serve on a soliciting com
mite, let alone getting the money
After few remarks by Mr.. e. R
Alderman and Judge d. r. Rood, il
which both gentlemen favored th
road and said that it would no doub
be a good thing if it can be had, res
olution was presented the Board fo
discussion.
Judge Rood thought it might be pos
sible that the people below Belpr
would be able to raise $4,000 TOWARD
the project and that it ought not to b
so very hard to get the remainder o
the $4,000 in the city.
The resolution, which was adopted
by unanimous vote, was as follows
Resolved, That the Board of Trad,
of Marietta consider the proposed elec
trio railroad from Centre Belpr,
through Belpre to Marietta as a pro
ject of great Importance 20 Marietta
and will gladly assist it by every rea
sonable effort in its power.
mat the Board regards it impracti
cable to raise the amount of donation
requested by the promoters of the roat
and would like to meet a representa-
tive of the promoters for conference
as to this.
After the adoption of the resolution
there being no further busines before
the Board, the melting adjourned.