Camas Prairie chronicle. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1901-1917, 1911-01-06

per1oe soep reesdsd quickly Int sas
away past, remsmbsrable only whsa
one made an effort to recall It
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 is-
nored. The way-station at the creek
crossing was named Gordonia, and 1t
was the railway traffic manager him
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
enlarging of the furnace and foundry
plant-hints all pointing to increased
traffic for the road.
With the coming of Mr.. Duxbury
Farley to Para disc, Thomas Jefferson
lost, not only the simple life, but the
desire to live it. This Mr.. Farley
mentarily, on the station platform in
South Tredegar, the expanded, hailed
from Cleveland, Ohio; was, as he was
fond of saying pompously, 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 confidiug
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 mems purses, and he saw the
fortuitous grouping of the possibilities
at glance: abundant iron of good
quality; an accessible vein of coal, sec
ond only to Pocahontas for coking;
land cheap. water free, and q persuad-
able subject in straightforward. sim
ple-hearted Caleb Gordon.
Farley had no capital, but he had
that which counts far more in the pro-
moter's field; namely, the ability to
reap where others had sown. His plan,
outlined to Caleb in a sweeping caval-
y-dash of enthusiasm, was simplicity
Itself. Caleb should contribute the raw
material-land, water and the ore
Quarry-and 1t should also be his part
to secure a lease Of the coal land from
Major Dabney. In the meantime he,
Farley, would undertake to float the
enterprise in the North. forming a
company and selling stock to provide
the development capital.
A company was formed, the charter
was obtained, and the golden stream
began to flow into the treasury; into
1t and out again in the raceway chan
| nels OF development. Thomas Jeffer-
son stood aghast when an army of
workmen swept down on Paradise and
began to change the very face of ma
ture. But that was only the begin
ming.
For a time Chiawassee Coal and Iron
figured buoyantly in the market quo
tations, and delegations of stockhold-
ers, both present and prospective, were
personally conducted to the scene of
activities by enthusiastic Vice. Presi-
| dent Farley. But when these had
served their purpose q thing happened
One fine morning 1t was whispered on
Change that Chiawassee iron would
not Bessemer. and that Chiawassee
| coke had been rejected by the Southern
| Association of Iron Shelters.
Following a crash which was never
very clearly understood by the simple
hearted soldier iron master. though II
was merely a repetition Of lesson well
| conned by the earlier investors in
Southern coal and iron fields. Caleb's
craft was the making Of iron; not the
| financing of top-heavy corporations.
So, when he was told that the company
had failed, and that he and Farley had
been appointed receivers. he took 1t as
| a financial matter. of course, some
what beyond his ken, and went about
his daily task of supervision with q
mind rs undisturbed as 1t would have
been distraught had be known soms-
thing Of the subterranean mechanism
by which the failure and the receiver
ship had been brought to pass.
ITO he continuad