Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1900-12-13
A Trip to Hilliard.

We took a trip to Hilliard and vicinity
last week and some things we saw and
heard are worth telling about.
Leaving Butler in the evening, things
were uneventful enough TO Branchtou
junction. Here the sidings were all
full of freight trains. One long ore
train stood on the main track in front of
the northbound passenger, and two
others had halted the Hilliard train way
back at Bovard. After some maJical
manuJering the passenger was given a
clear track, FIVE freight trains pulled
past the station in succession and (after
a two hours delay the Hilliard train
was ready to start on its journey up the
swampy, frosty coal mining, Hilliard
valley.
During the wait at Branchton, we
noticed that the Bessemer Co. is build
ing a great number of new sidings and
a new weight-scale for the coal cars
from Hilliard and Ferris. We We're
told that many other Improvements are
to follow The tracks often become
blockaded at this point. and an expert
ward master named McCutcheon, has
lately been located there to unrayel the
railroad knots and keep things moving.
The train crews sigh for double tracks
and so do delayed passengers.
Houses seem to be needed at Branch
ton. Six new ones are to be built and
twice that many more would be occu-
led A house costing $500 brings 80
rent per month.
1t used to be that the billiard branch
was full of broken rails and rotten ties
but now it is well bept track and
smooth and safe to ride on The force
of section hands on the Bessemer has
been more than doubled during the past
three years.
The train made stops at Boyers, where
Atwells cider and jelly factory is, and
at Ferns where Billy Costello Is Post
Master and man named Walker spent
$10S, 600 building coke-ovens to coke
coal that wouldn't coke.
We arrived at Hilliard at $50 p. m.
Beside we and the train crew there were
two male passengers and bride ana
groom named Sloan returning from
wedding visit. This pair had five
mile drive in the dark and mud ahead
of them before reaching home.
We went to the Central hotel and
found it temporarily cloed, three mem
bers of the family being down with
typhoid.
Then we went to the Sherman house,
presided over by neat old German
lady. Here there was no fever, nothing
worse than coal man with few sticks
of dynamite There are several other
cases of typhoid in Hilliard.
Another case of sickness that we
heard of, while yet on the train. was
that of a man who was making the
valley gruesome but eloquent temper
ence lecture for nearly week, during
which time his relatives and nelghbors
had TO forcibly keep him in bed. A
good man with young wife and family
and property, and yet the vile stuff
palned off as wiskey nowadays Is so
dear to him that he would give up his
reason and even his life to get it down
his throat.
After a good nights sheep we hired
John Scott's bay mare and buggy, and
drove to the house of a wellknown
citizen.
The roads were bad; one could trot
down hill safely, as the half-frozen mud
acted as break, but usually progress
was only by slow walk. One place
the road crossed a swampy bottom
through which branch of the Slippery
rock rms. In the morning the water of
the stream is clear and of a blackish
shade but in the afternoon it is yellow
with sand from the Standard Glass
Works sandstone quarries at Argentine.
The waters of the Slipperyrock seem
higher than the ground of the swamp
and the read. The creek was not
swollen and yet in some places water
was standing ON the road. The bridge
over the stream Ito which there are no
approaches worthy the name and no
guard rails) is scarcely two feet higher
than the stream at normal stage. We
were told that in flood time the whole
bottom over flows and that that bridge
has been covered by as much as SIX feet
of water Just below the bridge is
Higgins Corners, which sports store
and two coal banks. In this nelgnbor-
hood it is easy to see much more work
is devoted to the inside than to the sur
face of the earth.
At Mr.. Seaton's, Peter Benson of But
ler ate dinner with rs He had been Il
day and half hauling anew stem from
Butler to an oil well nearby. One
small well has set the whole region
daffy on oil.
Coming home that evening
the hunter was much i'll evil
dence. At Branchton: two SharpsburS
men put 70 rabbits and 80 pheasants oa
the train, the result of three days hunt
At Kiester 100 rabbits and a lot of biris
were loaded on. Wonder how many
ferrets the were in the gang.
Another feature of the home trip WIS
a loving couple who billed and cooed
in a back seat and had all the women
knocking their hats away and loosening
their hair by rGbbering at them
The Hilliard valley is rich country
but while its coal is diligently mined
the surface remains strangely foreseken
and deserted. f.