Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1910-10-07
CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VII.
From the grave and thoughtful van
foreground of 10, Thomas Jefferson
| could look back on the second illness OF
Ardea Dabney as the closing incident
of his childhood. The industrial
| changes which were then beginning,
not only for the city beyond the noun
tain, but for all the region ound about,
had ushed swiftly OF Paradise; and
| the old listless life of the unhasting
period soon receded quickly into a far
away past, rememberable only when
one made an effort to recall 1t.
First had come the completion OF the
Great Southwestern. Diverted by the
untiring opposition of Major Dabney
from its chosen path through the val
ley, 1t skirted the westward hills, pass
ing within a few hundred yards Of the
Gordon furnace. Since business knows
no animosities. the part which Caleb
Gordon and his gun crew had played
in the right of-way conflict was lS-
nored. The way-station at the creek
crossing was named Gordonia, and 1t
was The railway traffic manager lin
self who suggested to the iron-master
the taking of a partner with capital,
the opening of the vein Of coking coal
on Mount Lebanon, the installation OF
coking- ovens, and the undermining and
charging Of the furnace and foundry
plant-hints all pointing to increased
traffic for the road.
With the coming of Mr.. Duxbury
Farley to Paradise, Thomas Jefferson
lost, not only the simple life. but the
desire to live it. This Mr.. Farley,
whom we have seen and heard, mo-
mentarily, on the station platform In
South T%redegar, the expanded, hailed
from Cleveland, Ohio; was, as he was
fond Of saying pompously, a citizen OF
no mean city. His business In the re-
awakening South was that of an in
termediary between cause and effect;
the cause being the capital of c%onfiding
investors in the North, and the effect
the dissipation Of the same in various
and sundry development schemes In
the new iron field.
} To Paradise, in the course Of his go
ings to and fro, came this purger Of
other men purses, and he saw thu
fortuitous grouping of the possibilitie!
( at a glance: abundant iron of goot
quality; an accessible vein of coal, sec
. ond only to Pocahontas for coking
land cheap, water free, and a persuad
I able subject in straightforward, sim
ple-hearted Caleb Gordon.
t Farley had no capital, but he ha,
that which counts far more in the pro
. moter's field; namely, the ability t
o reap where others had His plar
outlined to Caleb in a sweeping caval
1 ry-dash of enthusiasm, was simplicit
itself. Caleb should contribute the ray
y material-land, water n the or
quarry-and it should also be his par
r to secure a lease of the coal land fror
Major Dabney. In the meantime h
Farley, would undertake to loaf tn
enterprise in the North, forming
o company and selling stock to provid
8 the development capital.
e A company was formed, the chartc
r vas obtained, and the golden strear
y began to flow into the treasury; int
n it and out again in the racewsy chan
nels Of development. Thomas Jeffer
son stood aghast when an army {
It workmen swept down on Paradise an
d began to change the very face of ma
IS ture. But that was only the begin
|. ming.
1t fOr a time coal and Ire
! figured buoyantly in the market quo
"a tations, and delegations of stockhol6
j. ers, both present and prospective, we
If personally conducted to the scene
d activities by enthusiastic Vice-Pres
IT dent Farley. But when these ha
y served their purpose a thing happene
One fine morning 1t was whispered c
Change that Chiawassee iron woul
1t not Bessemer, and that Chiawasst
l. coke had beer rejected by the Souther
d Association of Iron Shelters.
= Following a crash which was new,
,r very clearly understood by the simple
hearted soldier iron-master, though
1T was merely a repetition of a lesson we
n. conned by the earlier investors
y Southern coal and iron fields. Caleb
lie craft was the making Of iron; not Il
rs financing of to~p-heavy corporation
Of So, when he was told that the compar
er had failed, and that he n Farley hs
r. been appointed receivers, he took it
a financial matter, of course, som
d. what beyond his ken, and went abor
Re, his daily task of supervision with
it mind as undisturbed as 1t would ha'
been distraught had be known som,
w thing of the subterranean mechanis
as by which the failure and the receive
ok ship had been brought to pass.
Ito be continued.)