The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-09-09
(By ByON II. BUTLER.)

place on earth that holds for me more
Of a human interest than
here in the recently created county Oh
Lee. for its experiences is he ambl-
ton. the tragedy, the success, That
pretty near tells the story OF life.
II is now something over twenty
years since first began to notice san
ford from the car window. In thOSe
DAYS the Seaboard was serving the
country with one train a day each
way and a freight train that carried
n passenger car and hauled people
from the Johnson street station at
Raleigh down to somewhere IN n
sand desert that stretched out
through the turpentine and lumber
camps Of the southern boundary OF
the State.
For a long time Sanford seemed to
be "a few Struggling houses, the cross
ing Of the Cape Fear and Yadkin
Valley railroad, and the Cole Printing
Company. Always that sign. The Cole
Printing Company, was prominent,
and 1 wondered how a printing COM
pany could thrive in a little wayside
village.
City Print Shop in the Woods.
But there is one of the side lights
on the whole State of North Carolina.
learned years ago that the man who
wants 10 do something sets up his
shop, hustles for business, builds up
his place, and gets a name for his
product, and in time the world makes
a path straight 10 his door. l have
noticed that all over North Carolina.
The Cole Printing Company was
getting out the paper, the Sanford
Express. when l was in the shop. and
printing it on as neat a modern book
press as ever came out of the shop.
Few countr papers in the United
states are better printed, and Editor
81. Clair says their shop prints stuff
for all over the country. Lots of work
for Boston has been sent from the
Sanford Printery. Boston demands
good work. too. you know.
But | started TO tell Of Lee county,
beginning a hundred years before it
was Lee county. when its ambitions
were great and its hopes seemed
founded on a most STA ntial basis
away back when Washington was still
President of the United States and the
national capital was yet in Philadel-
phia and the United States consisted
Of the thirteen original States.
. They Laid the Ground Work. =.
Ii was in 1885, that the Cape Feal
Navigation Company was chartered
The old chaps. you see, wanted to be
gin things in this country long ago
Peace to their ashes, they were th'
right kind.
The men who were at the head O
the movement had no real conception
OF the momentous task they had lait
out for themselves. and they wer
never able TO accom- liSh 1t. But the.
left the project in the hands Of suc
ceeding generations, and it once wa
possible to travel in a steamer fror
Caroonton, up in Moore county. t
the sea.
Can't S%ubjusate Giant
The Cape Fair and its tributarie
proved a giant hat the facilities G
the early day could not subjugatt
Railroads came. and railroads ar
builders. Civil wa came, and was
q great destroyer. Between the tW
the Cape Fear Improvement Com
pany was ruined. Hundreds Of thou
sands OF dollars went to no purpos'
The dreams seemed to be ended j
the emo of the lost fortunes.
Then came the efforts to develop
the coal fields and the iron deposii
1t appeared a winner for q while, an
hope ruled high. Egypt was a thrift
mining center for a brief period.
lot OF good coal was shipped out. b,
the deposit is deep nde the groun
the deadly choke-damp gases explo,
ed several times, killing many me
water flooded the workings, discou
agement gave way to abandonment
and the Egypt coal dropped out Of II
market. to be developed probably
some later day when increased q
mand leads men to adopt improv.
methods and mine the valuable d
post probably and safely.
Iron furnaces sprung up along Il
river, for there is much good ore
the valley. and before and after Il
war all signs pointed to a big dev<
Opment of iron industries in this Sc
ton OF the United States.
Deep River Valleys Iron Dream.
Depression in the iron trade car
along about the time the cheap or
OF the Lake Superior country we
discovered. and the dreams of t
Deep River valley were cruelty d
PEELED again.
For three quarters Of a centu
hope had reigned over the upper e
OF Moore and the lower corner
Chatham counties. Then the wa
Of gloom that settled after the pr,
poets had SO long appeared to be n
teria1izing, was fierce. A little ray
light cut into the darkness. T