Evening journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1907-1913, 1907-12-24
.S|AMESE TWIN TOWN
"NemO's" Pen Picture Of Pictur-
esQue RadfOrd, Va.
STANDS HIGH ABOVE SEA LEVEL
Healthful Place Morally and Phys
ically and Is Thriving With In
dustry An Interview With
Governor Tyler.

Governor Tyler.
written for The Journal by Nemo)
We are in and among a section of
the Alleghanies; great hills rise
around us and mountain peaks look
over them. Great bluffs look down
on New River, and the railroad has
to follow the many curves of the
stream or shoot through the gorges
that nature has followed out.
Radford. where we are at present,
is like the capital of our nation was
a century ago--a town OF magnifi-
cent distances; largely laid out, but
thinly settled. 1t may be called a
"Siamese Twin town. as there are
two of them, East Radford and West
Radford, under one municipal gov
eminent, but having separate depots
and postofiices. and while the jail
Is in one twin, the court house is
in the other They are connected
by long strip of road, on one side
of which is high hills and the other
the river, but there is room for the
railroad tracks, and q single street
car is the ligature that links these
twin towns together. But these Rad
fords are new towns. Winchester
twas hoary with antiquity when the
first settlement was made.
In 1856 few machine shops were
started here that brought~about 100
Not until 1897 was the
town incorporated with 500 people
lin 1t. And then 1t took on new
life by the establishment of a great
furnace for the melting of the iron
ore brought down from the mines
nearby; the pipe works that employ
hundreds of men, and many other
plants that mean money and progress
to town. The population is now
near 1000 and increasing. The boom
flood struck this place and in reccd-
ing injured it as 1t did our city, but
the natural advantages here are SO
great that ii is recovering from the
Initiation of the boom period. The
nearness of the ore mines and the
Pocahontas coal fields and 1t being
the junction of the New River divi-
sion of the Norfolk and Western
Railroad, ensures its prosperity.
Radford is 1900 feet above the sea
level and is healthful, both physi-
cally and morally, as it is dry
town, and it seems that prohibition
prohibits better than it did with
us. The streets are not so well
graded and paved as with us, but
then the jail is generally empty, and
1t is better to walk over plank pave
ments than to lay them with the
bodies and souls Of men, the crushed
hearts Of women and the blighted
lives Of children.
Roanoke is AZ miles east of this
place. 1t is a city of phenomenal
growth and many industries. Its
daily papers have large circula-
ton in Radford, as the latter place
publishes only weekly, the Radford
Advance.
This section was noted for the
many bloody raids made here by the
Indians long after the lower Shenan-.
doah Valley was free from the red
men. Many of the principal families
live on the land that their ances-
tors fought for, when this Vas indeed
a dark and bloody ground Not un-
til after the battle of Point Pleas
ant in 1774 were the people living
here safe from the 'tomahawk and
scalping knife.
The scenery is wild and pictu-
rescue around here; handsome homes
are on the crests of high hills. Among
the most beautiful Of them is the
home of Ex-Governor Tyler. From
il there is one Of the grandest views
in the state. yet high as it is it is
furnished with all of the convent
ences of the city-water, telephone
and electric lights.
We had the pleasure of an inter-
view with our ex-governor, and
found him to be a very genial. hand