The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-01-10
MEN OF MARTIN COUNTY
APPEAR BEFORE DIRECTORS OF
INDIANAPOLIS SOUTHERN.
They Want the Line of the Road to
BE Changed to Take i'm Shoals
No Definite Action Yet.

The directors of the Indianapolis South
ern Railroad the proposed route from .Iiis
city to Evansville. via Bedford. West Ba-
den, Ferdinand and Rockport, acquired a
large amount of information about the re-
sources of Martin county at a meeting held
in the law Office of Charles E. Barrett, In
the Stevenson building. last night. A dele
cation of citizens of Shoals, Martin coun-
ty, Indiana, came up yesterday to confer
with Messrs. d. M. Parry, ]. Z. McGetti-
gan, w. E. Stevenson, ]. II. Wilson and
Charles Z. barrett, directors Of the new
road, with view Of having the original
route changed so as to run from Bedford
by way of Trinity Springs, Shoals and Jas
per into Evansville.
James B. Marshall, an attorney of Shoals.
acted as the principal spokesman Of the
Martin county delegation. With great
clearness and as much brevity as his en-
thusiasm would permit, he outlined the
advantages to be obtained by the suggested
change. He said as good route, for the
most part, and in many instances a better
one could be secured by taking the course
desired by the people he represented
Among the resources of the new territory
mentioned by Mr.. Marshall, which would
be of interest to promoters of railroad,
were coal, oil, live stock, fertile farm
lanas, towns of good size and a number of
county seats to be passed through. In ad-
dition, he told of iron furnaces which had
at one time been operated with plant
costing nearly half-million Of dollars
abandoned account of lack of shipping
facilities, which would doubtless be started
up again If the Indianapolis Southern
should come their way
Mr.. Marshall caIed upon Mr.. John B.
Lloyd, a prominent farmer and coal oper-
ator of Shoals. to inform the directors of
the railroad about the character and
amount of coal in Martin county. Mr.
Lloyd said most excellent quality of
steam coal, in veins about three and one
half or four feet thick obtainable without
the use OF blasting powder, is to be had
In great quantities. He exhibited a lump
OF coal mined two miles from Shoals, which
he said he had picked at random from his
coalshed last night in the dark. A ray of
humor Illuminated the proceedings when
Mr.. Parry asked Mr.. Lloyd loosely, who
washed that piece of coal?"
Mr.. 5. A. Chenoweth talked interestingly
of the livestock industry in mis- part of the
State, and said that many carloads of cat
tie are shipped to Chicago and st. Louis
that would gladly be sent to Indianapoli.
but for prohlbitive freight rates Alto
gether, an alluring picture of undevelopec
wealth In southern Indiana was drawn
Mr.. Chenoweth extended cordial invita-
ton to the directors to visit the country
and see for themselves If the statements
made at last nights meeting are not true
Nothing definite was decided upon by the
railroad company. and will not be until
the next regular meeting of the board of
directors -dr. stevenson said to a Journal
reporter that, since his road had announced
the route it intended to follow to Evans
Vile, its promoters have been besieged by
appeals from other sections to have the
route altered so as to include them. He
stated that at their next meeting all these
suggestions would be given careful consid-
Grafton and final conclusion reached and
promulgated