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 FOR USE ONLY IN 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
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 Ensuring Democracy through Digital Access (NC-LSTA) 
 
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 (FROM MT. AIRY, AT THE BASE OF THE BLUE RIDGE, 
 TO WILMINGTON, N. C.i 
 
 Its Orit^iQ, <5o95tru(;tio9, <$099e(;tio9S, a^d ^xtepsior^s. 
 
 EMBRACING 
 
 DESCRIPTIVE AND STATISTICAL NOTICES OF CITIES, TOWNS, VILLAGES, 
 
 AND STATIONS; INDUSTRIES. AGRICULTURAL, MANUFACTURING, 
 
 AND MINERAL RESOURCES; SCENERY OF THE ROUTE; 
 
 TRANSMONTANE EXTENSION, &c. 
 
 Illustrated wltli EngraYings made from Photographs 
 
 philadelphia; 
 Allen, Lane & Scott, Printers, 
 
 229-231-233 South Fifth Street. 
 ISS9. 
 
ORGANIZATION 
 
 ape l^eap apd Yadkir^ Valley 
 Ivailu/ag ©ompany. 
 
 1889. 
 
 JULIUS A. GRAY President. 
 
 J. W. FRY . Gen'l Sup't. 
 
 ROGER P. ATKINSON Chief Engineer. 
 
 J NO. M. ROSE Secretary. • 
 
 R. W. BIDGOOD Auditor. 
 
 JAS. R. WILLIAMS Treasurer. 
 
 \V. E. KYLE G. F. and P. A. 
 
 GEO. M. ROSE Attorney. 
 
 DIRECTORS 
 
 K. M. MuRCHisoN, New York. 
 J NO. M. Worth, Asheboro, N. C. 
 W. A. Lash, Walnut Cove, N. C. 
 Ji'Lius A. Gray, Greensboro, N. C. 
 G. W. Williams, Wilmington, N. C. 
 Lvo. D. Williams, Fayetteville, N. C. 
 
 Ch.\s. p. Stokes, Richmond, Va. 
 
 W. A. Moore, Mt. Air>-, N. C. 
 
 J. Turner Morehead, Leaksville, N. C. 
 
 D. W. C. Benbow, Greensboro, N. C. 
 ROBT. T. Gray, Raleigh, N. C. 
 
 E. J. Lilly, Fayetteville, N. C. 
 
 . Offices. 
 
 FAYETTEVILLE, N. C. 
 
 GREENSBORO, N. C. 
 
Cafe f :ea r asb Iabiii Galley 
 Sail WAT Ststeal 
 
 Hs Inception © ©radual 'I®po^re55 ® 'pinal ©ompletion. 
 
 1! 
 
 ^jHE uninterrupted progress of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley 
 
 v^ I \\:\ Railway, and its unrivaled prosperity and steadily increasing trattic 
 since the granting of its present charter by the General Assembly 
 • of 1879, were only to be expected in the full development and 
 completion of a railwaj^ system which occupied the minds of progressive and 
 thoughtful men even as far back as the earlier days of the present centur)'. 
 This system embodied the great ulterior object of opening to the markets 
 of the world the rich territory of the Upper Yadkin Valley by connection 
 with Fayetteville as the head of navigation on the Cape Fear River. Even 
 at as distant a period as 1815 the immense advantages to accrue from the 
 fruition of this project caught and fixed the attention of leading men in 
 the legislature, and such connection by canal was favorably reported and even 
 undertaken'; but the obstacles opposing themselves proved insurmountable to 
 the crude progress of that da}', and the work was abandoned. But inherent 
 in the Cape Fear and Yadkin \'alley system was the \-ery life of North 
 Carolina's internal improvement — again and again to revive and make itself 
 felt until the time was ripe for the full accomplishment of the great and com- 
 prehensive design. Nearly sixty years ago a charter was obtained, and ground 
 broken at Fayetteville for the building of the Cape Fear, Yadkin and Pee 
 Dee Railroad; but it was met bj' difficulties — insuperable at that period — of 
 a want of familiarity with railroad work, the disinclination of a sparse popu- 
 lation to hazard their means in what they regarded as a doubtful experiment, 
 and the inability of the State to furnish resources for the e.xtension of the 
 work. For twenty years the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley system lay dor- 
 mant, within which period was pushed forward to completion the then whole 
 railroad mileage of North Carolina: the Raleigh and Gaston, the Wilmington 
 
 (9J 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILUAY. 
 
 and Weldon, now forming a great link of one hundred and sixty-two miles 
 in the Atlantic Coast Line, and the North Carolina Railroad, at present leased 
 by the Richmond and Danville Railroad Company, and making an important 
 part of that extensive system. 
 
 In 1852 a charter was granted for the Western (Coal Fields) Railroad, 
 extending from Fayetteville west through the counties of Cumberland, Moore, 
 Harnett and Chatham, which, with the large amount of stock taken therein 
 by the State, and by the aid of liberal subscriptions from the county of Cum- 
 berland, the town of Fayetteville and individual stockholders, was built to 
 Egypt, progressing no farther than that point when the outbreak of the war 
 suspended all further operations. Imperfectly worked as they were, the coal 
 mines of Egypt, and the Western Railroad, with its facilities for transporta- 
 tion, proved of incalculable service to the Confederate Government in the 
 struggle of four years which ensued. 
 
 Fourteen years elapsed. The political rehabilitation and reconstruction 
 of the seceded States had been accomplished ; and again this great system 
 of State internal improvement and material development demanded recogni- 
 tion and received it at the hands of the General Assembly of P679, which, 
 by an act ratified February 25th, authorized the consolidation of the West- 
 ern Railroad with the Mt. Air\' Railroad, and changed the name of the cor- 
 poration to that of Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway Company. At 
 the next session of the General Assembly, and again in that of 1S83, the 
 State surrendered her interests in the road, with some needed concessions, 
 to a compan)' of private citizens, who have been building wisely and vigor- 
 ously ever since the affairs of the corporation passed into their hands. 
 
 Almost immediately after assuming the management of the Cape Fear 
 and Yadkin Valley Railway, April 6th, 1881, the present company entered 
 into a contract with the directors of the Fayetteville and Florence Railroad 
 for the extension over its graded road-bed of the Cape Fear and Yadkin 
 \ alley to Shoe Heel, intersecting the Carolina Central Railway at that point, 
 and continuing on to the State line. Simultaneously the work of construc- 
 tion was pushed westward, trains were running into the city of Greensboro 
 on the day of the annual meeting of stockholders in 1S84, and earl)- in 
 autumn of the same year the southern extension tapped the Carolina Central 
 Railroad at Shoe Heel (now Maxton), in Robeson County. 
 
 On the 26th of July, 1883, a contract had been made with the directors 
 of the Southern Pacific Railway for the grading, tracklaying and equipment 
 of that road from the State line to Bennettsville, S. C. ; and b)' the 5th of 
 December, 1884, the great work was completed — a distance of one hundred 
 and fifty-four miles from Bennetts\-ille to Greensboro, with ample rolling 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. I 3 
 
 stock, station-houses, warehouses, and freight accommodations — while at the 
 latter city convenient connection was made with the Richmond and Danville 
 Railroad. But the green hills of Piedmont were now just in sight, while 
 the stalwart mountaineers of the Blue Ridge were waiting with eager eye 
 and heart intent for the advent of this agent of civilization and develop- 
 ment. With every mile of grading and construction the difficulties of 
 engineering were multiplied ; but there was little pause in the \\ork of ex- 
 tension, and very soon the road \\-ound its wa}' through the suburbs of 
 Greensboro westward, passing under the North Carolina Railroad within the 
 limits of the cit\'. On the 20th of June, 1888, excursion trains carried 
 thousands of people from every point along the line of the Cape Fear and 
 Yadkin Valley Railway to participate in the ceremonies incident to the cele- 
 bration of Mt. Air\'"s railroad connection with the great outer world — the 
 beautiful village h'ing under the shadow of the towering chain of the Blue 
 Ridge. 
 
 A branch road had in the meantime been laid to Millboro — in the vicinity 
 of the extensive factories at Franklinville and other points on Deep River — 
 connecting with the main line at Factor}- Junction, twelve miles east of 
 Greensboro; and on the 28th of December, 1888, the Madison Branch, 
 e-xtending from Stokcsdale to Madison, traversing a fertile portion of Rock- 
 ingham county, had been so nearly completed as to admit of running a 
 regular train schedule to within a few hundred j-ards of the town. 
 
 It is proper to say here that all the work of construction within the past 
 five years has been performed by contract by the North State Improvement 
 Company, incorporated in the year 1883, and composed of men of high 
 character and prominence in business circles, of which John D. Williams, 
 of Fayetteville, is president ; and the traveling public cheerfully bear witness 
 to the fidelity with which the \\ork has been done. 
 
 A ver>- significant fact in the history of the Cape Fear and Yadkin 
 Valley Railway it may not be amiss to note before proceeding to a compila- 
 tion of the descriptive gazette of the mineral, manufacturing and agricultural 
 resources of the different sections of North Carolina which it reaches and 
 renders accessible to the \\'orld's markets: no other raih\'ay enterprise has 
 interfered with its progress, or lessened the need of its completion. During 
 the past ten years of its present name, director}^ and management, together 
 with a few years previous thereto, the Western Division of the North Caro- 
 lina Railroad has been completed, that portion of the Carolina Central which 
 had long remained as a gap between Wadesboro and Charlotte has been 
 laid, the Salem Branch of the Piedmont Air-Line has been built, the Raleigh 
 and Augusta Air-Line has made connection with the Carolina Central at 
 
14 CAPE FEAR AND YADKLX I'ALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 Mamlet, the Wilson Short Cut, a branch of the Atlantic Coast Line, has been 
 finished — and other less important branches, extending into Virginia and South 
 Carolina, have been constructed or are in process of construction. Not one 
 has discredited the wisdom, weakened the importance, or proved a serious 
 obstacle to the completion of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway, 
 which — crossing the chief water-ways of the State and forming a direct line 
 through some of the finest region of the three geological divisions of North 
 Carolina — bisects it from northwest to southeast, aiming to make final con- 
 nection by the shortest route with the great railway highway at Cincinnati, 
 and combining finally that most admirable feature of railroading which 
 reaches out and penetrates the undeveloped back country, with its own great 
 seaport for an outlet, with all its advantages to hundreds of miles of interior 
 of its shipping, diversified manufactures and commerce. Lastly, it is note- 
 worthy that the increase of business of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley 
 Railway has kept pace with every mile of road built. No station along the 
 line has failed to swell the receipts; no branch has proven unremunerative 
 for the outlay; and the reports at every stockholders' meeting demonstrate 
 a largely augmenting volume of business. 
 
Eastern "©ivi^ion. 
 
 FROM WILMINGTON TO FAYETTEVI LLE— ElGHTY-ON E AND SEVEN-TENTHS MILES. 
 
 WILMINGTON. 
 
 j^^^^ILMINGTON, the eastern terminus of the Cape Fear and Yadkin 
 ( (r I ^'alley Railway, the largest town in North Carolina, and one of 
 |-'i^_S *^^^ most important ports on the South Atlantic coast, is situated 
 on the east side of the Cape Fear River, and (air-line) twenty- 
 six miles from its bar. In a direct line the city is distant but little over six 
 miles from the ocean. 
 
 More than a century ago a devastating storm formed what is now known 
 as New Inlet; this breach did not show itself in the channel until 1850, when 
 the Government made an appropriation of $100,000. Careful engineering 
 showed two water shoals and exits in the channel, and the draught of water 
 was reduced from twent}--two to twelve feet. 
 
 To remedy this evil the Government has expended from 1870 up to June 
 30th, 1888, something over §1,851,000, with substantial success, securing from 
 fourteen to fourteen and five-tenths least depth of water at the main bar 
 entrance, with a channel of sixteen feet depth twenty-eight miles farther to 
 Wilmington. Ci:)mbining this depth \\-ith average rise of tide of four and five- 
 tenths feet at the bar, and two and five-tenths feet at the city, loaded vessels 
 with a draught of sixteen feet can go from Wilmington to the ocean on a 
 single tide an\' da\^ of the year. 
 
 From the time this work of the Go\^ernment was commenced until 18S7, 
 the total commerce of Wilmington had increased from $13,500,000 per 
 annum to nearly $20,000,000, and its foreign exports alone from less than 
 $1,500,000 to over $8,000,000. The carrying out of the recommendations of 
 Captain Bixby, Chief Engineer, that the dike be finished south to Zeke Is- 
 land, so as to secure Smith's Island from further erosion by the ocean, with 
 the widening of the river channels to their full dimensions of two hundred 
 and seventy feet, will probably restore the original full depth of water. The 
 company's shipping facilities at Point Peter will be good, as sixteen feet depth 
 of water can be gotten there on tide. Their terminal facilities will be first- 
 class, with train yards of ample accommodations to transport their freight to 
 Point Peter, where lighters will carry it to the city wharves of the company. 
 
 (17) 
 
1 8 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 CdALiNG Station. 
 
 In the descriptive gazette of the ITpper Cape Fear and Deep River Divi- 
 sion, a full report has been made of the work now going on at the Egypt 
 coal mines, giving an output of three hundred tons per diem. The careful 
 sketch of the transmontane extension, which concludes this hand-book, makes 
 it certain that the connection of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valle}- Railway 
 with the Norfolk and Western will give it large freights from the coal fields 
 of Southwest Virginia and Southeast Kentuck)-. This will make necessary a 
 branch road to Southport, which offers exceptional advantages as the great 
 coaling station on the South Atlantic coast. Vessels putting into Newport 
 News for coal go in one hundred and eighty miles, and out the same dis- 
 tance ; Southport, from the beaten track, is twenty-three miles in and out. 
 Such unsurpassed advantages require no comment. 
 
 INIanufactukinc. 
 
 The manufacturing establishments are numerous, and man}- of them exten- 
 sive, classified as follows : — 
 . 5 steam saw and planing mills. 
 3 sash, blind and door factories. . 
 
 1 ice factory. 
 
 3 machine shops and foundries. 
 
 2 fertilizer manufactories. 
 
 I factory of pine wool matting fibre and pine wool cotton bagging. 
 
 3 establishments for the manufacture of clothing. 
 I ladies' and children's underwear factorj-. 
 
 3 carriage factories. 
 
 3 soda water and beer bottling establishments. 
 I chemical companj-. 
 
 I paint and oil manufactory. 
 
 1 dyeing- establishment. 
 
 I cotton mill. 
 
 1 stocking factory. 
 
 I marble works. 
 
 I creosote and acid works. 
 
 1 naval store manufactory. 
 
 2 packers and refiners of tar. 
 
 2 rice mills. 
 
 4 grain mills. 
 
 3 candy factories. 
 
 I alcohol manufactory. 
 
 This makes a total of 45 manifold and valuable industries. 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 New Industries. 
 
 The Acme Manufacturing Company, occupying extensive buildings a few 
 miles from the city, has developed a new industry which is destined, probably, 
 to prove a ver}- important one. From the green straw of the pine (a material 
 which exists in inexhaustible quantities through all that section of the State), 
 they manufacture a fibre which distinguished surgical authority has pronounced 
 of exceptional value in the dressing of wounds ; carpet matting and bedding 
 are also made therefrom, which are durable, handsome, and free from insects, 
 to which the balsamic odor of the pine leaf is peculiarly obnoxious. But the 
 most important branch of this industr}-, in a commercial point of view, is the 
 manufacture of pine fibre cotton bagging, which, it is claimed, is in all respects 
 equal to jute bagging. From this pine leaf is also extracted an oil, antiseptic 
 and possessed of medicinal virtues. The Carolina Oil and Creosoting Com- 
 pany extensively manufactures creosote oil from ordinary pine wood, and 
 effectively prepares piling and timber against rot and the ravages of other 
 destructive agencies. The timber, after being subjected to a process which 
 thoroughly carbonizes it, is placed in creosoting cylinders, where it is 
 thoroughly impregnated with the oil, and is sent out for effective use for an 
 almost unlimited time. The company has a capacity of about thirt}' thou- 
 sand linear feet per day. There are, besides, the Wilmington and Champion 
 Cotton Compress Companies, occupying magnificent structures in the business 
 part of the city, with about an equal capacity of from twelve hundred to 
 fifteen hundred bales per day of twenty-four hours. This preparation for ship- 
 ment and movement of cotton, it will be readily seen, makes in the aggregate 
 an immense volume of business in the employment of hands, the transactions 
 at the banking houses, and the placing of a large amount of ready money in 
 circulation. The completion of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway will 
 increase the area of cotton production, and will thus benefit Wilmington as a 
 market for that staple. 
 
 The Growth of Wilmington. 
 
 The city of Wilmington is steadily increasing in population (and conse- 
 quently in dwellings and other structures), wealth, manufacturing and com- 
 merce. No better demonstration could be made of the enlargement of the 
 city's limits and of the number of those whose business or pleasure carries them 
 from one portion to the other da}' by day, than the fact that, while one 
 street-railway was discontinued for the want of adequate support, that now in 
 operation is paying what would be a satisfactory dividend on more than double 
 its stock. The best informed of its citizens estimate that the census of 1S90 
 will give it a population of about twenty-seven thousand, the increase being 
 mostly white. 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 Exports. 
 
 The following official table gives the amount of exports in its leading arti- 
 cles for the year 1888: — 
 
 Cotton (bales) 162,993 
 
 Spirits turpentine (casks) 63,473 
 
 Rosin (barrels) 246,566 
 
 Tar (barrels) 63, 163 
 
 Crude turpentine (barrels) 21,572 
 
 Timber and lumber (feet) 36,679,509 
 
 Pitch (barrels) 8,489 
 
 Peanuts (bushels) 40,397 
 
 Cotton goods (packages) iiSH 
 
 Shingles 6,663,980 
 
 Besides the leading articles above enumerated, there is a large export trade, 
 foreign and coastwise, of cotton seed and cotton-seed oil, rice, peanuts, peas, 
 garden truck, melons and other fruits, &c. 
 
 Shippinc;. 
 
 The improvements made and being made by the Government work in the 
 harbor have been followed by a marked increase in the size of the vessels 
 entering port. An average tonnage for foreign sail has been raised from two 
 hundred to four hundred tons, though many vessels register as high as one 
 thousand or twelve hundred tons, with foreign steamers ranging from eight 
 hundred to seventeen hundred tons. The arrivals in port for the year 1888 
 were as follows : — 
 
 Foreign steamers 24 26,083 tons. 
 
 " sail 107 42,742 " 
 
 Total 131 68,825' " 
 
 American steamers 95 76,567 tons. 
 
 " sail .- 144 40,251 " 
 
 239 116,818 " 
 
 The New York and Wilmington Steamship Company's notably improved 
 business is a gratifying evidence of the city's increasing prosperity. The line 
 is now doing all that it can manage, and will undoubtedly in the near future 
 be forced to enlarge its service and transportation. 
 
cape fear axd yadkin valley railway. 25 
 
 " Fisheries. 
 
 But the future, after all, is to develop the great industry of Wilmington — 
 the cultivation of its oyster-fields and fishing-grounds. With as fine an 
 oyster as is to be found in the world within a few miles of their doors, the 
 housekeepers at the market, unless very particular, are forced to put up with 
 a small, inferior oyster, as the genuine New River oyster is obtained in onh- 
 limited quantities, being transported across country in carts, and is eagerly 
 bought up by restaurateurs, to be generally served on the half-shell, where 
 the_\- are perfection, unless surpassed by the " Blue Points " of the New York 
 market. From Federal Point, along the coast for eighty or ninety miles, 
 with a width of from one to two miles, is a continuous sound filled with 
 vast oyster-beds thousands of acres in extent, and abounding in innumerable 
 choice fish of every description. Once connect this immense field for a 
 remunerative industry with Wilmington by rail (the distance is only a few 
 miles), and the city would straightway fall heir to a profitable business 
 amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and eventually millions, 
 annuall}-. Oysters, both fresh and canned, would be transported over its lines 
 of railway, seining stations would at once be established all along the sound, 
 and deep-sea fishing would be greatly increased. The business would find 
 eager customers at all the interior towns on the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley 
 Railway, whose people have hitherto been shut out from a good fish and 
 o}-ster market, and who covet these luxuries even more than the dwellers along 
 the coast. 
 
 The Water-Supply. 
 
 Wilmington is supplied with water by the Clarendon Water- Works Com- 
 pan\-, whose plant is situated immediate!}^ in front of the historic old mansion 
 of Cornelius Harnett. It is the combined standpipe and direct-pressure 
 system, with three duple.x Worthington pumps of a total capacity of three 
 million gallons in twenty-four hours, running through about twelve miles of 
 main pipe from four to twelve inches in diameter, to which is attached 
 one hundred and five public and seventeen private fire-hydrants. The aver- 
 age daily consumption of water is about five hundred thousand gallons. The 
 company has also commenced the boring of an artesian well, which, at the 
 close of winter, had attained a depth of five hundred and fifty feet. 
 
 Wh.\rf and Terminal Facilities. 
 
 The company has recently purchased property for terminus of road at 
 Point Peter, just at the confluence of Cape Fear and North East Rivers, 
 with a wharf front of thirteen hundred and sixty feet. Contracts have been 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 let, the work of pile-driving for the company's wharves was commenced on 
 the 15th of March, and the work will be completed by 1st of ]May. 
 
 Valuable property- has also been bought in Wilmington, adjoining the 
 Ocean Steamship Wharf, of one hundred feet under shelter, with one hun- 
 dred and thirty-seven feet front adjacent, the whole running back to Water 
 Street, and including two valuable brick buildings. The transfer of passengers 
 and freight from the terminus of the road to the company's wharves in Wil- 
 mington will be made by steam-feny and lighters. 
 
 It is confidently expected that the eastern extension \\\\\ be completed 
 by the close of the present year, which every branch of business in Wilming- 
 ton will feel immediately most beneficially. Besides the increased facilities for 
 obtaining timber offered to the workers in wood, and the nc\N field opened 
 for all descriptions of manufacturing, the merchants of Wilmington will 
 enjoy great advantages in lower rates of freight, and will be enabled to sell 
 almost any class of goods to country dealers at any point on the road as far 
 west as Greensboro, as cheaply as they can be bought at Richmond or 
 Baltimore. 
 
 Wilmington to the Health or Pleasure Seeker. 
 
 With a mean annual temperature of sixty-three degrees, and a mean hu- 
 midity of fifty-seven degrees, Wilmington offers to the tourist, in a hygienic 
 point of view, attractions not to be surpassed by any part of South Florida 
 or Georgia. Here the winds hardly ever blow from one quarter for more 
 than forty to forty-eight hours, it is nearly entirely free from fogs, and is as 
 exempt from epidemic diseases as it is possible for a place to be. In a con- 
 tracted area, embracing Southport and Wilmington, the climate is semi-trop- 
 ical, and snow rarely ever falls. On the afternoon of February 21st, of this 
 year, the slow-moving leaden clouds gave the people of Wilmington a treat, 
 and great flakes fell thick and fast for an hour, covering the ground to the 
 depth of an inch or two. The writer watched with much amusement the 
 wild delight of )-oung and old in their welcome of the rare visitor, and he 
 was assured by one aged citizen, whose cheeks were aglow with the exercise, 
 and his hat crushed in by a snowball, -that they "hadn't had such a good snow 
 in fifteen years." As a summer resort Wilmington offers to the tourist and the 
 invalid advantages which are unparalleled by that of any other point on the At- 
 lantic coast. Rapid and agreeable transit by shell road, steamer and railway has 
 been provided to Carolina Beach, Wrightsville Sound and "The Rocks," at 
 all three of which the hotel accommodations are e.vcellent, and during the 
 season that is daily witnessed which is possible nowhere else from Maine to 
 Florida — the visitor is transported up to the very surf, to mingle with the 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 29 
 
 sportive bathers, b\- the locomotive, which would almost seem to be striving 
 to lave its heated sides in the tossing, foaming waves. The surf bathing is 
 safe and delightful; the waters of the sound offer a wide area for yachting 
 and sail-boating, while the fishing is superb — Spanish mackerel of great size, 
 the blackfish, bluefish, pigfish, flounder and other species being caught in 
 great numbers. The last General Assembly of North Carolina also fixed 
 the permanent encampment of the State Guard at Wrightsville, assembling 
 in July, which will prove an accession to the pleasant features of that resort 
 during the season. 
 
 The hotel accommodations of the city of Wilmington will now compare 
 favorably with those of an}' other city in the South. The Orton, an ornate and 
 commodious edifice, recently constructed on North Front Street, with its 
 elegantly furnished chambers, its parlors fitted up with c\'ery luxur\', its 
 exquisitely appointed dining-room, the careful and polite attention of its 
 employes, and, most important of all, its perfect aiisnic, offers to the voyager 
 a pleasant house of rest during his journeyings, or to the invalid a beautiful 
 home, supplied with every comfort during the months of winter, and crowned 
 with every attraction during the heat of summer. The guests of the Orton 
 Hotel have the privileges of the fishing and hunting of the Orton plantation, 
 one of the princely possessions of the builder and owner of the hotel. Colonel 
 K. M. Murchison, of New York. Here are about nine thousand acres of 
 "preserved" land, upon \\'hich is situated the old homestead, and about it 
 lingers still the aroma of an historic past, for here was once the capital of the 
 Colony and the residence of the Roj'al Governors. Here, too, are the ruins 
 of old St. Philip's Church, built in 175 i, to which was presented a silver com- 
 munion service by George III. of England; but the brier and the vine have 
 possessed themselves of sculptured lintel and plinth, dank weeds invade the 
 broken chancel, silence enwraps the crumbling wall, and the gray, majestic 
 ruin is given up to "age and memories of eld." 
 
 The City's Government, &c. 
 
 The streets of the city are moderately well-lighted by both gas and elec- 
 tricity, while three steam fire-engines, with hook and ladder companies and 
 numerous hose-reel teams, are relied upon to prevent a recurrence of the 
 disastrous conflagrations which have twice within the past five years swept 
 over the fairest portions of the city. Like all old towns, Wilmington lacks 
 regularity and symmetry in its architecture. It can boast of but few public 
 or private buildings notable for beauty or costliness, though there are man\' 
 handsome churches and elegant private residences. But its City Hall and 
 Opera House may well evoke the pride of an}- communit}-, and challenge 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 the admiration of the most finished connoisseur of correct and tasteful archi- 
 tecture. No finer specimen of the pure Doric exists in this country within 
 the knowledge of the writer. Perfect in proportion, simple and graceful in 
 unity of design, its exterior is accompanied by a fitting interior of lofty 
 halls, broad passages and spacious chambers. The Opera House is a beau- 
 tiful hall, capable of accommodating over one thousand persons. 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 The people of Wilmington are impulsive and warm-hearted, and hospitality 
 to the stranger within their gates is to them an obligation as sacred as to 
 the Arab in his tent ; they never seem so happy as when welcoming and 
 entertaining a convention or other large assemblage of visitors. Some of the 
 most prominent business men of the South are influential leaders in the com- 
 mercial circles of this community; and their legal bar, always distinguished for 
 ability, now numbers some of the foremost men of the State. 
 
 The public and private schools are numerous and excellent, the municipal 
 government is well administered, and the financial condition of' the city 
 excellent. 
 
 Excavations have been made for the new Government building on Front 
 Street, which will be an imposing edifice — a great accession to the city's archi- 
 tecture. 
 
 At Wilmington are located the machine and construction shops of the 
 Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (the most extensive in the South), turning 
 out an immense amount of first-class work. 
 
 Besides the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway, Wilmington is the 
 terminus of the Carolina Central Railway, the Wilmington, Columbia and 
 Augusta Railroad, the Wilmington and Weldon Branch of the Atlantic Coast 
 Line, and the Wilmington and Onslow Railroad (projected). 
 
 Agricultural and Timber Resources, &c. 
 Contiguous to Wilmington the land is very fertile : a clayey soil, impreg- 
 nated with phosphatic matter, ocean salts, and alkalies, it was undoubtedly 
 uplifted b)- the ocean in ages past. With even a slight admixture of organic 
 matter, deeply plowed in, vegetation is rendered luxuriant, and nowhere are 
 soil, climate, and atmospheric conditions more favorable to the trucker and 
 market-gardener. Grapes are grown of delightful flavor, wonderful size and 
 in boundless profusion, many of the varieties producing a second crop during 
 the season. The Lower and Upper Cape Fear sections of the road embrace 
 portions of the counties of New Hanover, Brunswick, Pender, Sampson, 
 Bladen and Cumberland, and gradually rise from the sea level, by an easily 
 ascending champaign, to an altitude of a little more than one hundred feet 
 
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 33 
 
 at Fayetteville. L}-iiig direct!)- upon the route of the Hne, portions of the 
 country are sparse!}' sett!ed, tlie !and is t!iin, and generous crops are denied 
 to t!ie farmer. A!ong t!ie water-courses, liowever — BIac!<; River, Cape Fear 
 and the creel<s, \v!iic!i are extensive and numerous — there is a ric!i a!!uvia! 
 soil, producing a magnificent yie!d in corn and cotton. A!l this area is sub- 
 ject to overflow in seasons of continuous rain ; but, w!ien spared tliis draw- 
 back: to t!ieir returns, spiendid harvests are reaped ; and nowhere is to be 
 found a better system of agriculture than exists in portions of the counties 
 grouped under this heading. 
 
 The flora oi this region is varied and exuberant; fifty-four different kinds 
 of wood were found by actual observation in a piece of land comprising four 
 acres — swamp, upland, and \\'oods. In addition to dogwood (used in shuttle 
 manufacturing), juniper, cypress (the material for the immense number of 
 shingles shipped from Wilmington everj- year), poplar, and the white and water 
 oaks, recent ofificial figures have placed the amount of yellow-heart, long-leaf 
 pine standing in this section, exclusive of Cumberland, at over one billion feet. 
 
 The completion of this division of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley 
 Railway will therefore not only give an impetus to agriculture and the other 
 elements of material prosperity, but it will render accessible a vast area* of 
 virgin timber land ; and the sawyers of wood and the makers of lumber — 
 the pioneers of new communities and increased population with every mile 
 of railway extension everywhere — will plant their machinery on creek, valle\' 
 and hillside, to secure the rich returns of these uncut forests, giving employ- 
 ment to hundreds, planting settlements, building villages, and infusing new 
 life and enterprise into all that section. 
 
 The farmers of these lower counties, notably Pender, Sampson and 
 Bladen, have alwaj's devoted much attention to the raising of fine stock, and 
 the yearly exhibits of good horses, cattle, hogs and sheep, at the Sampson 
 County Agricultural Fairs, attracted large crowds, and received favorable atten- 
 tion from all parts of the State. 
 
 The staple crops of this section are diversified and valuable : rice, peanuts, 
 the early truck of the market-gardener (peas, beans, lettuce, radishes, cucum- 
 bers, salads, asparagas, &c.), sorghum cane (the area in which has greatly 
 increased of late years), corn, cotton, oats and rye. 
 
 The grading and construction work on the road-bed of the Eastern 
 Division is rapidly approaching completion — bridge-work, trestling, putting 
 in of culverts, and all the other labor incident to placing the bed in readiness 
 for track-laying; the stations, sidings and water-tanks have been nearly all 
 located, and it is reasonably certain that at the date of this publication track- 
 laying will have commenced. 
 
34 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIS I'ALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 The Bridge over the Cape Fear. 
 
 At Fayetteville, a few hundred \-ards below the county bridge, a new 
 iron raih'oad bridge is now constructing by the company — four iron spans, 
 the approaches one hundred and ninet\- feet each ; the middle spans one 
 hundred and fift_\- feet each ; total length of bridge, six hundred and eighty 
 feet. 
 
 A single-span iron bridge also crosses Black or South River on this route. 
 
 FAYETTEVILLE. 
 
 Here abides a people with a histor}'. Here and there some quaint, old- 
 time building — a veritable landmark of the past — tells of its "vanished 
 glories;" in the beautiful cemeter_\', whose dead sleep to the soft plashing of 
 the waters of Cross Creek, the time-stained marble glints in the sunlight, and 
 is flecked with the shifting shadows of the swaying elms, as it perpetuates 
 the names and memories of the men oblivious now of all the triumphs 
 of human achievement, but whose commanding abilities, spotless integrity 
 and untiring energy made the Faj-etteville of the olden time great in business 
 and commerce. 
 
 ■ Within a stone's throw of the accompanying illustration of Eccles Park, 
 one finds the site of the abode of Flora McDonald, about whose name 
 years but add to the pleasing romance which softens the rugged lines of 
 history — the gifted heroine inseparably linked in the records of the past with 
 every mention of the chivalrous but ill-starred Prince Charles Edward, whose 
 devotion to the House of Stuart brought her from the shores of her native 
 country, nearly a century and a half ago, to settle with a little band of friends 
 and adherents, in this quiet, far-away spot in a new and untried land. Not 
 a stone is left of the domicile which sheltered this noble Scotchwoman ; 
 but the spirit which inspireil her and the little colony of followers has not 
 abandoned the valleys and the hills which the}' made historic for all time; it 
 lives still in the stiu'diness of character, honesty, thrift and industry of their 
 descendants, now multiplied into an intelligent population throughout the 
 counties of Cumberland, Harnett, Moore, Richmond and Robeson. 
 
 A Great Inland Trade. 
 
 Fifty years ago Fayetteville controlled nearly all the inland trade of 
 North Carolina, with a large part of that of portions of Tennessee and Vir- 
 ginia. The merchants of Wilmington were accumulating fortunes in plying 
 avast and lucrative business with the West Indies; and the Cape Fear River 
 transportation of molasses, sugar, salt, iron, coffee and the goods of the North- 
 ern markets, to Fayetteville, the head of its navigation, was immense. Canvas- 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 37 
 
 topped wagons — drawn by two, four and six horses, with jingHng bells, 
 traversing hundreds of miles from across the Blue Ridge, winding over the 
 red hills of the rugged country about the Pilot and the Suaratown Mount- 
 ains — creaked slowly and heavily on, to the shout of driver and the crack 
 of whip, towards Fayetteville — the Mecca of trade, the El Dorado of mar- 
 velous riches in merchandise. These wagons were nearly all laden with the 
 products of their sections — butter, lard, bacon, beeswax, flour, hides, flaxseed, 
 back-country whisky and brandy — carrying back in exchange goods for the 
 country merchant and for home consumption; and they drove into the town 
 in long lines, grouping themselves about the different places of business 
 whence came the hum of traffic all day and often far into the night. The 
 country tributary to Fayetteville was networked with plank roads to facilitate 
 this great and continuous wagon travel, one line (the Western Plank Road) 
 being one hundred and twenty miles in length. But the "iron horse" was 
 more powerful than the road wagon, and a very large part of the back- 
 country trade of Fayetteville was diverted into otlier channels, from causes 
 which we need not go far to seek. 
 
 Note here that the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway system — con- 
 ceived in the days of the wealth and prosperity of the tidewater and Upper 
 Cape Fear section — lays the steel rail upon the disused old rut of this remun- 
 erative traffic, and its long trains bound with the swift life of steam-power 
 over the route of the slow-toiling wagon caravan ; from the seacoast to the 
 mountains, through some of the best settlements and most fertile counties of 
 the State, it is moving still onward, e\-ery additional mile signalizing the wis- 
 dom which had seized upon what nature had blazed out for a great high- 
 way of commerce. 
 
 Manufactures. 
 
 Fayetteville enjoys the advantage of very considerable water-power, fur- 
 nished by Cross, Blount's, Rockfish, and Beaver Creeks, running either imme- 
 diately through the town and its suburbs or the adjacent country. This 
 water-power may be immeasurably increased (the matter has been and is now 
 agitated by the citizens) by the reopening of the old canal, giving an unlim- 
 ited volume of water, with sufficient fall, from the Cape Fear River, and 
 pursuing a system which has recently achieved such wonderful results at 
 Columbia, S. C. The old canal-bed, some portions nearly intact, can be 
 traced from its beginning, a few miles north of town, through the environs, 
 to the original basin, near the corner of Hay and Winslow Streets, and 
 which the boys fifty years ago used as a skating-pond. 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN lALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 The Fayetteville Cotton Mills, located on the site of the old Mallett factory, 
 only three-fourths of a mile from the business centre of the town, is one of the 
 new manufacturing enterprises of the progressive city. Since the organization 
 of the company, last spring, two dams have been constructed, together with 
 factory building of two stories, forty-eight by one hundred feet, besides picket- 
 house, offices, '&c. All the machinery is of the most improved patterns, pur- 
 chased direct from the manufacturers, and comprises sixteen self-stripping cards, 
 ten spinning frames, two thousand and eighty spindles, speeders, railway 
 heads, &c. 
 
 Commencing with a capital of $32,250, with the privilege of an increase to 
 $100,000, the success of the company has been very gratifying since its organi- 
 zation. The energy of the younger business men of the community has been 
 evoked to guarantee its success, and representative men of all classes of the 
 population have subscribed of their moderate means to the establishment of 
 this important industry in their midst. It is a most satisfactory illustration of 
 what persistent and concerted effort can accomplish upon the basis of a limited 
 capital. 
 
 The Bluff Mills, on Beaver Creek, a three-story brick building, with 
 boiler-house, cotton storage warehouse, &c., are run by a sixty-inch turbine 
 wheel, and have three thousand and fifty-six spindles and sixty-two looms ; 
 they consume about thirteen hundred and forty pounds of cotton per day. 
 The mills produce thirty-six hundred and twenty-two yards of sheet- 
 ing daily; the machinery here is also of modern pattern. The mills 
 employ a well-organized army of from one hundred and fifty to one hundred 
 and sixty competent operatives, who, with their dependencies, make up a 
 comfortable town of five hundred or six hundred inhabitants. There are 
 seventeen hundred and thirty-six acres of land and fifty odd tenement- 
 houses belonging to the factories, and two stores supply the hands with the 
 necessaries of life. The mills turn out a fine class of three-yard sheetings and 
 Nos. 7 and 10 yarns; also cotton paddings. The products are very popular ; 
 about one-half of them, including all the yarns, are sold in North Carolina. 
 The New York agents are Woodward, Baldwin & Co., and in Baltimore 
 Woodward Baldwin & Norris, through whose hands the " Lake George " 
 and "Lebanon" 4/4 heavy brown sheetings of the Beaver Creek and Bluff 
 Mills find their way throughout the world. A stock of these goods are 
 kept in the store in Fayetteville, where the president has his ofificc. 
 
 The Cumberland Mills, situated on Beaver Creek, adjacent to Bluff Mills, 
 comprise the main building of four stories, fifty by one hundred feet ; dye- 
 house, thirty by ninety feet; lapper-house, thirty by fifty feet; store-room, 
 twenty by fifty feet. There are eighty-six looms and twenty-eight hundred 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 4 1 
 
 spindles, run b}- one liundred and twenty horse-power, and emplo)-inj^ one hun- 
 dred and twenty operatives ; they consume twenty-five hundred pounds raw 
 cotton per day, with a total production of twenty-seven hundred pounds goods 
 daily, which consist of fine cottonades, seamless bags, twines and carpet warp. 
 These goods are sold in New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati. The labor is 
 all native, and, where taken from the country around and taught, not gen- 
 erally satisfactory. 
 
 There are, besides, a bucket factory now in successful operation, for the 
 manufacture of well-buckets, pails, tubs, measures and other articles of wooden- 
 ware, to \\'hich the company expect to add the machinery for making spokes, 
 helves and shuttles; one of the largest establishments in the South for 
 the manufacture of turpentine stills (for which they have a lucrative trade 
 all over the Southern country) together with tobacco flues ; a factory mak- 
 ing turpentine hacks and other tools, which employs a large force and 
 carries on an immense business ; a plow manufactor}', supplying a large per- 
 centage of the farmers of all that region ; a clothing manufactory, newly 
 established and giving steady work to forty or fifty hands; a sash, blind 
 and door factory; two wood-turning factories; one iron foundry; the exten- 
 sive Merchant flour and corn mills; three grist mills; one very complete flour 
 mill (patent roller process); one wool-carding mill; one cotton-seed oil mill 
 (running night and day at the height of the season); one wagon factory ; one 
 carriage factory (known as one of the most extensive in the South); one 
 candy factory; two soda and beer bottling establishments ; one brick-yard (very 
 extensive) — besides the numerous lumber and planing mills, cooper and black- 
 smith shops demanded b)' the large and increasing business of the community. 
 
 Other industries are projected, and stock has already been taken for the 
 erection of another cotton mill. Increased interest in the subject of manu- 
 facturing is observable in the community, and a realization of the fact that 
 substantial prosperity is proportional with the number and extent of those 
 enterprises which give steady employment to large numbers of people, supply 
 a self-sustaining, thrift)' population, utilize the raw material of our varied 
 products, and increase the circulation of ready money with the aggregate 
 monthly wages of toiling thousands. 
 
 Here, too, are located the shops of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valle_\' 
 Railway Company, which, enlarged in dimensions and added to in machiner}- 
 and force with the increasing needs of the compan}', now cover a large area of 
 ground and turn out an immense amount of work — ^comfortable and beauti- 
 fully finished passenger cars, box and flat cars, &c., constructed under the 
 advantages of little cost and great convenience accruing from the unlimited 
 timber resources developed along the line of road. 
 
42 cape fear axd yadkin valley railway. 
 
 Mercantile Business, &c. 
 
 The receipts and shipments of cotton (exclusive of factory conAunption) 
 and naval stores will aggregate, in value, not less than from $2,000,000 to 
 $2,250,000 per annum — besides those of the other varied products of the 
 countr\- tributary to Fayetteville. The mercantile trade embraces a large scope 
 of territory — much of it fertile and very productive — and the volume of both 
 wholesale and retail business is gratifying and increasing; of the former — in 
 dry goods, staple and heavy groceries, fertilizers, hardware, agricultural imple- 
 ments, &c. — Fayetteville can boast of some of the most extensive houses in 
 the State. 
 
 Attractions for Northern Tourists. 
 
 Fayetteville is surrounded on all sides by great forests of pine, with a 
 genial and salubrious climate, which is abundantly evidenced by the remark- 
 ably low death-rate of the city's population and the unusual average longevity 
 of its inhabitants, and is rarely subjected to extremities of cold, the ther- 
 mometer during the severest winters hardly ever falling below twenty degrees. 
 Especially is it a pleasant place of sojourn during the spring months, so trying 
 in the far South and still held in the grasp of winter at the extreme North. 
 Here nature bestirs herself and thaws out under the quickening effects of 
 soft winds and a balm}' atmosphere, while summer comes on with hesitant 
 footfall to blow into full flower the bursting buds of springtime. 
 
 Seekers after health or pleasure alike want the comforts, the conveniences 
 and the luxuries of life, and these are supplied without stint at the new Hotel 
 La Fayette. Spacious rooms, with the best modern furnishing ; tasteful parlors 
 and drawing-rooms; broad stair and hall ways; cosy balconies; a delightfully 
 situated dining-room ; comfortable offices and billiard tables — all combine to 
 offer the best features of first-rate hotel entertainment. As to the table, there 
 is no appeal from the unerring judgment of the traveling public; and this 
 "autocrat of the (dinner) table," headed by that affable boii vivaiit, the 
 "drummer," sounds everywhere the praises of the kitchen and larder of the 
 Hotel La Fayette. 
 
 Ihe town and its suburbs (notably incomparable Haymount) afford many 
 delightful drives and rides, diversified by level roadways, picturesque streams, 
 and bits of exquisite scenery. 
 
 Characteristics of the People, &c. 
 
 Fayetteville has lost much of the quaint and picturesque in streets and 
 buildings which so charmed the visitor in past years. The iron front and the 
 
CAPE FEAR AND VADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 45 
 
 mansard roof have displaced the plain brick \\all and flat roof which made up 
 whole blocks of stores, pierced by archways and corridors to the gloomy 
 warehouses in the rear, and reminding one of nothing so much as the archi- 
 tecture of the benign and simple rule of the Missions on the Pacific coast. 
 
 The market-house remains almost alone to tell of how they put together 
 and ornamented brick and mortar when this centurj- was young. The illus- 
 tration conveys better than description an idea of its perfect proportion, grace 
 and symmetry. The town hall surmounts the market proper, and the building 
 occupies a broad plaza at the intersection of the four main business thor- 
 oughfares. 
 
 But there is much of the old town in the present generation. Clannish, as 
 befits their Scotch-Irish stock, the people are nevertheless open-handed and 
 generous; they are cultured without ostentation, and gifted with the simple 
 refinement of nature. The uprightness and integrity of its men, and the beauty 
 and virtue of its women, fail not yet to uphold the ancient prestige of the 
 venerable town. 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 The people of Fayetteville have ever been keenly alive to the importance of 
 utilizing to the fullest extent all the educational advantages vouchsafed to them, 
 and in past years some of the best and most thorough high schools of the State 
 have been there located. Though there are still several private schools in dif- 
 ferent sections of the city, well patronized, as well as a large and flourishing 
 kindergarten, the graded school system now absorbs a large percentage of the 
 children of Fayetteville. The building is situated on Haymount, the western 
 suburb of the town, and, with ten departments and an efficient corps of 
 teachers, offers to the community fine educational facilities. An excellent 
 public librar}- elevates and refines the literary taste of the people, while ten 
 churches for white and colored invite the different denominations to the worship 
 of God. 
 
 A merchants" and cotton exchange, with a numerous membership, with, 
 ample facilities for handling, weighing, grading and storing cotton, &c., gives 
 compactness and concert of action to the business interests of the community, 
 and ample banking facilities demanded by the increasing mercantile and manu- 
 facturing operations are furnished by one State and one National bank. 
 
 On the banks of a beautiful stream, Cross Creek, which winds its way with 
 graceful curve through the most beautiful part of the city, crossed here and 
 there by handsome bridges, is Eccles Park, with gaily-painted boats, handsome 
 boat-houses, grounds for croquet and other out-door pastimes. In pleasant 
 weather it is a place of popular resort, and the stream, alive with boating 
 
46 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 parties, and the lawns thronged with ladies and children, present an attractive 
 and animated scene. 
 
 Including all the suburbs which actually merge into the corporate limits, 
 Fayetteville contains a population of about six thousand, though it is credited 
 with much less by the last census. 
 
 At the last legislature a charter was obtained for a street-railw^ay, which 
 the extended area of the place renders desirable and expedient. 
 
 The Wilson Short Cut, a branch of the Atlantic Coast Line, has its present 
 terminus at this point. 
 
 Cape Fear River transportation of freight and passengers by steamer to 
 Wilmington and intermediate points has always been an important factor in 
 the commerce of Fa\-etteville, and has been the main channel for the receipt of 
 heavy articles of merchandise. The steamers are comfortable, and the voj-age 
 of one hundred and twelve miles to Wilmington pleasant. The boating busi- 
 ness on the river has recently been almost entirel)' consolidated into one 
 company. 
 
 The rich bottoms of the Cape Fear River produce immense crops of corn 
 and forage, and the land contiguous to Fayetteville — undulating, light, sandy 
 loam, with cla}- subsoil, and well watered — is well adapted to truck-farming, 
 fruit-raising and the growth of grapes. 
 
 A large floral nursery in the suburbs of the city and several fruit nurseries 
 in the adjacent country are among the profitable industries at this point. 
 
 About four miles north of Fayetteville is Tokay Vineyard (one hundred 
 and forty-seven acres), one of the largest, and certainl}', in the number of \'ari- 
 eties of grapes and other fruit cultivated, the most interesting, east of the Rocky 
 Mountains. Here the Scuppernong, very luxuriant of growth and prolific 
 of yield, occupies many acres of the vine\'ard ; the remainder of the area is 
 devoted to the cultivation of the different trellised table grapes and other 
 fruits — peaches, pears, melons, &c. Ample cellarage, presses, gas-house, store- 
 houses, &c., render Tokay Vineyard complete in every respect ; while the ele- 
 gant mansion of the proprietor, grounds beautifully laid off and adorned with 
 statuary, pleasant walks and drives, make it one of the " show places" of the 
 State, which the Faj'etteville people take a pride in showing to the stranger. 
 The vintage of Tokaj- amounts to about forty thousand or fift}- thousand 
 gallons of wine per annum — Scuppernong, Concord, Delaware, &c. — besides 
 which great quantities of table grapes are shipped abroad. 
 
<i)oUtl]ern te)iVt5ion. 
 
 Fayetteville TO Bennettsville, s. c— Fifty-seven miles. 
 
 HE completion of the Southern Division of the Cape Fear and 
 Yadkin Valley Raihva\', a little more than four years since, has 
 been attended by very beneficent results, not only in the largely 
 increased traffic enjoyed by the road, but in a still greater measure 
 y the opening out and development of a country especially rich in agricul- 
 tural and forestry resources. 
 
 This division traverses Cumberland, Robeson and Richmond counties in 
 
 his State, and Marlboro count)', S. C, to Bennettsville, a distance of fifty- 
 
 ^■ven miles, and places accessible to market one billion three hundred and 
 
 "ty million feet of yellow-heart long-leaf pine, besides almost inexhaustible 
 
 ipplies of maple, poplar, juniper, cypress and other useful woods. 
 
 After leaving the sand-hills and Big Rockfish, a few miles out from Fay- 
 
 . teville, the traveler surveys a fine farming country clear on to Bennettsville, 
 
 elding excellent crops of corn, sorghum and cotton, with a thrifty population, 
 
 i'lostly of Scotch-Irish extraction (in the North Carolina counties), and quick 
 
 t- seize upon all the advantages and opportunities vouchsafed to them. 
 
 A great impetus has been given to the production of naval stores by 
 
 is southern extension, and the cutting of timber and sawing of lumber 
 
 ve grown into a business of vast extent. The pufifing engines of the mills 
 
 ;et one at every station, and the forests resound, as the train speeds along, 
 
 ^th the axe of the woodman. Timber trains are frequently carried into Fay- 
 
 :eville requiring the pulling power of two large engines, and the freight-books 
 
 '' the company show that the business is steadily increasing. It is a gratifying 
 
 i.:t, as showing the general thrift and prosperity of the State, that compara- 
 
 i. ely little of this lumber is shipped out of North Carolina — all the orders 
 
 ming to the millers that they can possibly fill from nearer home, the Piedmont 
 
 : .;tion constituting a very large and important customer. 
 
 Hope jMills. 
 
 At the first station, seven miles from Fayetteville, are situated the large 
 ; I' tories of the Hope Mills Manufacturing Company, of which is appended 
 t!u: following description : — 
 
 No. I mill, brick building, two hundred and eighty-five feet by fifty feet ; 
 ■ >;ie-half two stories, and one-half three stories high. Dye-house one hundred 
 
 (49) 
 
50 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILUAY. 
 
 and ten feet by thirty feet ; modem machinery. Dry-house twenty feet by 
 thirty feet; modern machinery. Spreader-room and machine-shop, thirty feet 
 by sixty-six feet ; two stories. 
 
 Mill fitted up \\ith Kitson compound spreaders, twenty-eiglit roller cards 
 and railroad heads, six drawing frames (American make), two slubber and five 
 fly frames (Higgins' make), fifty-six hundred Excelsior spinning spindles, spool- 
 ers and reels, circular warper, one Denn double-head double-linker electric-stop 
 warper, six twisters and four beaming machines, one hundred and ninety box 
 looms — twenty-two of these are sixteen harness. All the machinery is in first- 
 class condition. Goods made — cottonades and cheviots. Help good and well- 
 behaved. 
 
 The company have fifty houses in No. i village, also saw-mill and store. 
 The village contains two churches and one schoolhouse. 
 
 Mill is fitted up with Grennell sprinklers and first-class fire-pump, and 
 is run entirely by water, of which there is a full supply. 
 
 Hope Mills No. 2, situated about a mile and a half south of No. i village, 
 is an entirely new mill and village, all built within the last twelve months. 
 The mill is three hundred and forty-six feet long by sixty feet wide, two 
 stories high, and is filled with the very latest improved machineiy. It will be 
 run entirely by water, of which there is an abundance. 
 
 The spreader-room will contain one cotton opener and preparer and four 
 loppers (Potter & Atherton's), card-room, twenty revolving flat cards (Platte's, 
 English make), Howard & Bullock electric-stop drawing frames (Providence 
 machine), a slubber and fly frames. 
 
 The spinning-room contains nine thousand Whitin's gravity spindles, Hope- 
 dale upright spoolers, Denn's double-head electric-stop warper. 
 
 The weave-room contains Wood's reels, winders, and beaming frames, and 
 Knowles' looms. Shafting, hangers and pulleys furnished by W. Sellers & Co., 
 Philadelphia, and water-wheel by the Holyoke Company. 
 
 This mill will be lighted by electricity, and is also fitted up with the Gren- 
 nell fire system. Also has powerful pump with outside hydrants. It is now 
 about ready to operate ; will manufacture fine }'arns and fine ginghams. The 
 structure is built of brick. 
 
 The village contains sixty well-built houses, all nicely painted. The water 
 is first rate, and the location healthy. 
 
 The capital of the Hope Mills Manufacturing Company is $300,000. 
 
 RED SPRINGS. 
 
 No point on the line of the road can show a more rapid growth, with 
 a consequent increase in population, business and industries, than this thriv- 
 
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 53 
 
 ing village. Five years since Red Springs was a little settlement in the 
 woods; now it is a fair town on the highway of railway travel, with several 
 stores, two hotels, an excellent newspaper, mills, cooper and blacksmith shops, 
 &c. Then the inmates of one or two families made up the sum of its inhab- 
 itants ; now it numbers its population by the hundreds, with church and 
 school facilities rarely enjoyed by a place of its size. 
 
 There are ten saw and planing mills, including a sash, blind and door 
 factory within the limits of the corporation or in the immediate vicinity, 
 which together employ over two hundred and forty hands (representing, with 
 the average per capita of families, a population of about one thousand, sup- 
 ported by these industries), and pay out from $700 to §800 per week in wages. 
 
 Private enterprise has also here built a narrow-gauge railroad through the 
 heart of the pine forest, for the saving of time, labor and money in hauling 
 the logs to the mills, and it has also been eagerly utilized by the farmers of 
 the vicinity in getting their products to market. 
 
 Red Springs derives its name from that which invested it with interest 
 and importance among the people of this section of the State long before 
 the days of railroads : its chalybeate springs of iron in solution, very highly 
 charged, magnesia and sulphur. Their medicinal virtues have been thoroughly 
 tested and long known, and the increase of visitors to enjoy for the season 
 the healthful waters of these exhaustless fountains is notable eveiy j-ear. 
 The springs (of which there are two) are unlimited in supply, and apparently 
 have no bottom, for the " longest pole " in all the country around has never 
 yet succeeded in making " soundings." 
 
 MAXTON. 
 
 Prior to the change of its name on application of its citizens, this place 
 rejoiced in the curious appellation of Shoe Heel. This, we may reasonably 
 infer, from the Scotch element predominating so largely in Robeson county, 
 was a corruption of Ouhelc, a clan exterminated in pitched battle by the 
 Clan Chattan during the reign of Robert of Scotland, and immortalized in 
 Scott's romance of the " Fair Maid of Perth." Maxton is a flourishing town, 
 and is destined to acquire additional impprtance from its favored position 
 as the trade centre of the rich agricultural communities of Richmond and 
 Robeson counties, and a considerable scope of country in South Carolina. 
 The shipments of naval stores and cotton are very large, and the business of 
 general merchandising is steadily on the increase. 
 
 Maxton is an unusually intelligent community, marked by great refinement 
 in its social circle, and enjoys exceptional religious and educational advantages. 
 
54 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 The population is now about seven hundred, the rate of increase being very 
 great within the past four years. It is at the intersection of the Cape Fear and 
 Yadkin Valley and Carolina Central Railways. 
 
 BENNETTSVILLE. 
 
 Bennettsville is the county-seat of Marlboro, S. C, one of the best cotton- 
 producing counties in the State, ranking second in the amount of its annual 
 crop. The land almost verifies the description of " level as a floor," and farm- 
 ing is done still on almost the grand scale of the days prior to the war. 
 The planters " pitch " for big crops and fertilize extensively even the naturally 
 rich soil of heavy loam subsoiled with clay. A part of the county furnishes 
 excellent grazing, abundantly evidenced by the number of fine cattle, farm 
 horses and mules, and blooded stock for riding and driving. 
 
 Bennettsville, since the completion of the road in December, 1884, has 
 enjoyed exceptional prosperity. An industrious population has been attracted 
 thither for the purpose of engaging in mercantile business, rendered profitable 
 by the impetus given to agriculture, to invest in property or engage in indus- 
 trial enterprises. The people are proud of their town, and are admirably 
 sustained in this feeling by a good municipal government. They are liberal 
 supporters of churches and schools, of which the consequence is a moral and 
 law-abiding community. 
 
 A prosperous banking establishment meets the needs of this enterprising 
 business community, and a charter has been obtained for the establishment 
 of a cotton factory. 
 
 The court-house is a very fine structure, of unique but attractive style of 
 architecture, occupying the centre of a spacious square fronting the business 
 part of the town, with an interior admirably arranged and fitted up. 
 
 The contemplated extension of the Southern Division of the Cape Fear 
 and Yadkin Valley Railway to Camden Junction offers comparatively few 
 difificulties in engineering after bridging and crossing the Pee Dee, will in- 
 crease the tributary area of rich farming territory, and will furnish important 
 railroad connection with lines running south, via the Three C's, South 
 Carolina and Wilmington and Columbia Railroads. 
 
 INTERMEDIATE STATIONS. 
 
 Lumber Bridge, McNatt's, Shandon, Wakulla, Floral College, John's, 
 Hasty, McColl's, and Tatum's are all busy and important stations on the 
 line of the Southern Division, plying a brisk trade in general country mer- 
 chandise, and making large shipments of cotton, naval stores, timber, lum- 
 ber, &c. In the cotton season the freight receipts on this part of the road 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 57 
 
 necessitate all the dispatch possible in moving the crop, and frequently tax 
 the rolling stock to its full capacity. Exclusive of Wilmington, Bennetts- 
 ville ranks third among the stations on the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley as 
 a shipping point. 
 
 Fayetteville is now enjoying a splendid trade from this Southern Divis- 
 ion. The merchants of Lumber Bridge, McNatt's, Shandon, John's and the 
 other stations above mentioned in South Carolina are prompt-paying and 
 valuable customers for large orders in dry goods, staple groceries, fertilizens 
 and general merchandise. Even in the former days of inland and wagon, 
 trade, the business of Fayetteville, gathered from Robeson, Richmond and 
 South Carolina, was more profitable than that of the western country, as the 
 cotton brought to market by the farmers and planters of that section always 
 commanded ready money, while the western commodities — hides, tallow, but- 
 ter, flaxseed and other grain — were exchanged, in barter, for the articles car- 
 ried back for home consumption. 
 
 Few persons would recognize the city of to-day with the town of ten 
 years ago. One side of Person Street has been almost entirely rebuilt with 
 fine brick edifices, while Hay Street is a picture of architectural beauty, 
 from Donaldson Street to Market Square. The taste of the householder 
 and real estate owner has kept pace with this business enterprise, and the 
 suburbs are beautified by many elegant and tasteful residences. 
 
COURT-HOUSE, GREENSBORO, N. C. 
 
Upper ©Oipe "p'ear ©,nel te)eep t^iVer "©ivi^ion. 
 
 From fayetteville to Greensboro— ninety-seven miles. 
 
 ^B>^'S^ig|HTS division leads through the counties of Cumberland, Harnett, 
 Moore, Chatham, Randolph and Guilford to Greensboro, at the 
 junction of the North Carolina Railroad with the Richmond and 
 Danville. The hill countrj' now succeeds with the route of the 
 line inland, and \ery rapidly after leaving Gulf, an altitude being reached at 
 Greensboro, eight hundred and fifty feet above sea level, about seven hundred 
 and fifty feet higher than that at Fayetteville, more than two-thirds of which 
 elevation is attained in a distance of fifty miles. 
 
 Fayetteville is the centre of a large extent of countr)', embracing part of 
 Cumberland, the counties of Robeson and Richmond on the south and south- 
 west, and Moore and Harnett on the west and northwest, which has been for 
 many years one of the great naval-stores-producing sections of the South, and 
 Fayetteville was second only to Wilmington in the exportation of this great 
 commercial staple. At one time there might be counted in the environs of the 
 city twenty-eight turpentine distilleries, working on full time throughout the 
 season. With the lapse of years much of the virgin pine has of course been 
 boxed, but vast tracts of uncut long-leaf still lie in easy access of the road. 
 Similar in some, but not in all respects, to the soil of the Southern and Eastern 
 Divisions, the light loams and clayey loams of the upper Cape Fear continue 
 for about one-third of the distance embraced in this division, after ^\•hich the 
 country changes entirely in soil, topography and geological formation. The 
 gray soil intermixed with gravel, and the red and dark-colored soils of the re- 
 gion of slate and granite, appear. The country is broken and rugged, and on 
 all sides crop out evidences of the existence of extensive and valuable mineral 
 deposits ; the long-leaf pine disappears, and the oak forests supenene, very fine 
 bodies of which extend along Deep River, and on both sides of the railway line 
 to Greensboro. Walnut, hickoiy and dogwood also abound along the route, 
 extensive shipments of which are being made by different individuals and 
 companies. 
 
 Minerals. 
 
 Mention has already been made of the coal mines of this region, and the 
 
 matter will be more specifically treated farther on. As to the quality of the 
 
 (6i) 
 
62 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 coal, the highest geological authority has pronounced it " well adapted for fuel, 
 cooking, gas, and oil. It is a shining, clear coal, resembling the best specimens 
 of Cumberland. It ignites easily, burns with a bright, clear combustion, and 
 leaves a very light purplish-gray ash. It swells and agglutinates, making a 
 hollow fire. It yields a shining and very porous coke, and is an excellent coal 
 for making gas or for burning." (Report of Admiral Wilkes to the Secretary 
 of the Navy.) Lying along these coal beds are deposits of ball-iron ore, as well 
 as other ore 'beds along the line of railway or in the vicinity within an area of 
 twenty by forty miles; A geological report of Professor Emmons gives the 
 general character of these ores : — 
 
 Sesquioxide of iron 69.73 67.50 
 
 Protoxide of iron 0.84 47- 5° 
 
 Phosphoric acid 06 
 
 Sulphur 09 3.39 
 
 Carbon 3i-30 34-00 
 
 But of all the mineral deposits of this region the most valuable ore bed is 
 found at Ore Hill. The veins seem to be without limit, several being from 
 fifteen to eighteen feet in thickness. Many of these veins have been opened 
 and worked at various times, producing mainly limonite ore. It makes an ex- 
 cellent, tough iron, being porous and easily smelted. From samples selected by 
 the late Professor Kerr, State Geologist, out of a heap of several hundred tons, 
 the following analyses are by Genth and Hanna : — 
 
 Silica 1.42 3-79 
 
 Oxide of iron 82.02 83. So 
 
 Lime and magnesia 1.30 
 
 Phosphorus 00 
 
 ■ Sulphur 00 .44 
 
 Professor Kerr says : " The purity of this ore 'is conspicuous, and the quan- 
 tity seems to be very great." 
 
 Lying some distance farther up Deep River are outcropping beds of mag- 
 netic, and, in one or two instances, specular, iron ore, which during the civil war 
 were worked with gratifying results, producing iron of superior quality. 
 
 Between Sanford and Egypt red and gray sandstone, and a little farther 
 west granite, exist in large quantities. These stones are already being quarried, 
 and their demand for building purposes will steadily increase with the present 
 facilities of transportation and the rapid progress of the country. 
 
 In Moore county a very superior quality of mill stone is found in immense 
 strata, bath on upper Little River and at the extensive works of Parkewood, on 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 65 
 
 Deep River, and " Moore County grit " is, without exaggeration, favorably 
 known the whole countr>' over. 
 
 Soapstone is found at various points in the upper part of Moore and along 
 the line of Chatham counties. These beds were successfulh" worked \-ears ago, 
 and constituted a profitable industry to that section. The demand for soap- 
 stone in the great markets of the world is practically limitless, and, accessible 
 as the railway has now made these quarries, we may expect them to be soon 
 again in active operation. A bed of soapstone, which promises to be quite valu- 
 able, has recently been discovered in Guilford count)'. 
 
 Capital seeking investment will gradually realize the value of the gold 
 mines of Moore and Randolph, which, imperfectly worked before the war with- 
 out the present improved mechanical appliances, yielded in man\- cases very 
 satisfactory returns. 
 
 Water-Power. 
 
 A recenth' published descriptive gazette of the Cape Fear and Yadkin 
 Valley Railwaj- says of the manufacturing enterprises located upon Deep 
 River: "The Deep River factories, so located that a common terminal point 
 will place the most remote within four miles of the branch line, are the Frank- 
 linville, Cedar Falls, Randolph, J. M. Worth, Randleman, Naomi, Columbia, 
 "Central Falls, and Enterprise Manufacturing Companies — nine mills, twenty- 
 four thousand six hundred and sixty-eight spindles, six hundred and ninety- 
 six looms, ninet}'-one carders, emplo)-ing twelve hundred operatives, consum- 
 ing seventeen thousand pounds of raw cotton per da}-, and freighting in and 
 out thirty-seven thousand pounds of raw material, supplies, merchandise and 
 manufactured goods daily. These factories feed and clothe four thousand 
 persons." A competent authorit\- has estimated the full water-power of 
 Deep River at nine hundred and fift)' thousand spindles, and of the Cape 
 Fear River, above Fa}'etteville, at two million, making a total of three mill- 
 ion spindles, all within the scope of less than eighty miles of the road, 
 embraced entirely in the Upper Cape Fear and Deep River Division. 
 
 The Deep River factories, since the date of the above estimate, exhibit a 
 very gratifying increase in the value of plants and machiner\-, extent of oper- 
 ations, output of goods, &c. The number of mills remains the same, a new 
 factor}' having been erected and one removed to another point on the line of 
 road. The looms have been increased from six hundred and ninet}'-six to 
 one thousand and twent}--eight, the carders to over one hundred, while there 
 has been an addition of about fifteen per cent, to the force of employes. 
 The freighting in and out of raw material, &c., has advanced from thirty- 
 seven thousand to about fifty thousand pounds daily, with a corresponding 
 
66 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 augmentation of raw cotton consumed. All the mills are supplied with the 
 latest improvements, and nearlj- all lighted by electricity. 
 
 Agricultural Products. 
 
 The farm products of this division are varied and important, and com- 
 prise cotton, corn, oats, wheat, rye, sorghum cane, Irish and sweet potatoes, 
 fine cabbage, onions, &c., &c. 
 
 MANCHESTER MILLS. 
 
 At the first station west of Fayetteville are the ^lanchester jNIills, occu- 
 pying a building two hundred and twenty-five by forty feet, and running 
 nineteen hundred spindles and fifty-five plaid looms. The mills manufacture 
 plaids and stripes, which are sold all over North and South Carolina and 
 Virginia. There is a forty horse-power of water with a sixt}- horse-power 
 engine. 
 
 McFADYEN SPRINGS. 
 
 In the vicinity of Manchester, lying upon Little River, are the McFadyen 
 Springs, enjoying a very enviable reputation in all the adjacent country for 
 the remarkable medicinal efficacy of their waters in the cure of cutaneous 
 and scrofulous diseases, and the alleviation of all liver complaints and ail-- 
 ments growing out of dyspepsia and disordered stomach. So strongly im-' 
 pregnated are these waters with the chemical constituents which make up 
 their analysis that the wet earth at the bottom of the spring and on its 
 sides is used with wonderful effect as a plaster in eruptions, sores, &c. The 
 ]SIcFad\-en Springs have been little advertised ; and, even with the present 
 railroad facilities, no effort has been made to bring them into public notice. 
 The accommodations are very rude and primitive — simply a few cabins, which 
 are used by Fayetteville families and those in the vicinity; but in coming 
 years JMcFadyen Springs will doubtless attain the prominence which they 
 deserve. 
 
 Spout Spring and Swann's Stations are thriving points on the line, the 
 former the centre of a great lumber milling business, and the latter making 
 large shipments of naval stores. 
 
 JONESBORO. 
 
 The traveler greets this gladly as one of the most attractive towns on the 
 line of the Cape Fear and Vadkin Valley Rail\va\-, presenting an appear- 
 ance of thrift and prosperity, with its neat residences, numerous stores and 
 church spires and school belfries, which is very inviting. Long established 
 
CAPE FEAR A.XD VADAV.V lALLEY RA/LIVAV. 69 
 
 as a trading point for a prosperous section, Jonesboro has of late years be- 
 come quite an important cotton market, receiving and shipping large quantities 
 of the staple every season. The cultivation of bright yellow leaf tobacco 
 has also been largely entered into by the farmers of Moore county, which 
 the progressive spirit of the place has met by the erection of two commo- 
 dious tobacco warehouses. 
 
 A few weeks ago a very important forward step was taken in manufac- 
 turing by enterprising citizens of the community, by the establishment of a 
 cotton mill, with complete plant, improved machinery, &c., for the manufac- 
 ture of yarns and carpet fillings. 
 
 There is a banking establishment to meet mercantile and other demands, 
 wagon and bugg)' factory, a good newspaper, with many other adjuncts of a 
 flourishing communit}-. The people are moral and law-abiding, and pay 
 special attention to the support of their churches and schools. 
 
 SANFORD. 
 
 Sanford is at the intersection of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley and 
 Raleigh and Augusta Air-Line Railroads, whence connection is made with 
 Charlotte, Wilmington, and Raleigh. The town draws a lucrative trade 
 from the rich farming segments of three counties lying in a corner, and has, 
 besides, sash and door factory, marble works, and several other remunerative 
 industries. It enjoys also the advantage of a well-established and excellently- 
 edited newspaper. In the vicinity is a quarry of excellent brownstone, already 
 successfully worked. 
 
 THE EGYPT COAL MINES. 
 
 The Egypt Coal Company, which purchased the Egypt mine estate — com- 
 prising twelve hundred acres of coal land, twelve hundred acres of timber land, 
 and three hundred acres in a high state of cultivation — have, at the date of this 
 publication, very nearh- restored the machine plant and accomplished the un- 
 watering of the mine, the shaft of which is four hundred and sixty-three feet in 
 depth, with twelve hundred feet of gangway, numerous slopes, chambers, &c. 
 The machinery has been put in excellent repair, pit-head erected and all the 
 timbering restored; the steam used in the operation of the machinery has been 
 produced from refuse coal l>'ing upon the dump for over twenty years — a 
 remarkably strong proof of its excellent quality — and, to guard against every 
 possible contingency, the company have laid a pipe line one-fourth of a mile in 
 length from a spring which will furnish an ample supply of water. 
 
 The present machine plant and the openings in the mine have a capacity of 
 about three hundred tons per da\-, and the company anticipate no difficulty in 
 
JO CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN lALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 mining and marketing an output of that amount within the State. The 
 property, prior to its coming into the hands of the present management, repre- 
 sented a cash capital of S-50,ooo for machiner\-, developments and improve- 
 ments, and the additional outla_\' with the present company has already reached 
 into the thousands. Hitherto, operations have been conducted under great dis- 
 advantage, and at expense for labor and material far in excess of what the same ♦ 
 now costs — changed conditions b\' which the present company will undoubtedly 
 profit. A branch line of railway a mile long, extending from Egypt Depot to 
 the shaft of the mine, has been graded and cross-ties delivered, so that the work 
 will be completed by the time the mining company is ready to ship coal. 
 
 A brownstone quarry of approved quality has also been opened, and when 
 fully uncovered the shipments of its excellent building material will doubtless 
 be much increased. 
 
 An extensive saw-mill has been erected on the company's property, and a 
 brick-yard will soon be in operation. 
 
 A town site — Egypt Depot — has been laid off, and an architect has drawn 
 plans for several buildings which will be erected forthwith. 
 
 Gulf-, Goldston, Richmond and Ore Hill are the next four stations west 
 from Egypt, all showing a steady and gratifying increase in business and popu- 
 lation each )-ear. 
 
 Near Ore Hill are the 
 
 MOUNT VERNON SPRINGS, 
 whose waters have been carefully anah'zed, and undoubtedly possess unusual 
 medicinal efficacy. The_\' have become a popular sinnmer resort, and, with con- 
 templated enlarged and improved hotel accommodations, \\\\\ continue to at- 
 tract numbers of visitors. 
 
 SILER CITY. 
 
 Siler City, having tributary to it an excellent agricultural section, has grown 
 rapidly, and has been quick to seize upon the opportunities presented by rail- 
 way communication with the outside world, in bending every effort to build up 
 its business in merchandise, and enhance the \-alue of its industrial pursuits. 
 Here is located a good boarding and day school, under the management and 
 supervision of careful and efficient instructors, and offering the advantages 
 of excellent ph)-sical, mental and moral training. 
 
 Siler City has a large tobacco warehouse, several lumber and planing mills, 
 together with a number of prosperous and energetic business houses and men. 
 A gratifying evidence of the growth and thrift of the surrounding country is 
 found in the success attending the exhibitions of the annual agricultural fair 
 held at Siler Cit\\ 
 
WATER TOWER, GREENSBORO, N. C. 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 STALEY. 
 
 This busy place has literally sprung into existence with the westward exten- 
 sion of the road. Emerging from the woods with the advent of steam and the 
 flying train, its growth has been lusty and its prosperity remarkable. Its popu- 
 lation is about two hundred, with nine stores, shuttle factory, chair factory, saw 
 mills and planing mills within its limits and in the immediate vicinity. It never 
 fails to make an excellent exhibit on the freight-books of the company, as it is 
 one of the shipping points of the Deep River Cotton Mills, and its merchants 
 carry on a brisk trade in the shipment of poultry and other farm products, while 
 they deal largely in furs and dried fruits. 
 
 The lands of this section and on to Liberty produce a very fine grade of 
 bright yellow leaf tobacco, growing also some of the finest fruits of different 
 varieties raised throughout the extent of the line. 
 
 LIBERTY. 
 
 Liberty is beautifully situated, and presents a very pleasing appearance to 
 the incoming railway passenger. The extension of its limits and the growth of 
 its population have been very marked within the past two or three years, and 
 the citizens now claim a total of between five hundred and six hundred inhab- 
 itants. An act of incorporation has been recently granted by the legislature, 
 and many contemplated and actual improvements evince the spirit of progress 
 and enterprise. A fine school is established here, which, for discipline, efficiency 
 and curriculum of stud}', has already taken high rank among the educational 
 institutions of that section. A large area of country surrounding Libert}- is 
 admirably adapted to sheep husbandr}'. The land is well drained, high and dr}', 
 offering fine ranges for flocks. The mutton raised is not very large but of excel- 
 lent quality, and the wool clip is good. 
 
 Julian, Factor}' Junction (from which extends the Millboro Branch, con- 
 necting with the factories at Deep River) and Pleasant Garden are the last 
 three stations on the road leading into Greensboro. 
 
 GREENSBORO. 
 
 Greensboro, the beautiful gateway into the fair Piedmont region, merits 
 with emphasis the importance given it as a great "railroad centre:" — the 
 point of junction of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley and Richmond and 
 Danville Railroads, with the various extensive connections of both s}-stems, 
 which embrace the main and branch lines leading south and southeast to 
 Wilmington, Bennettsville and Fayetteville; north to Danville, Richmond, 
 
74 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAIUVAY. 
 
 Washington and beyond ; east to Raleigh, Goldsboro and New Berne ; 
 soutliwest to Salisbury, Asheville and Charlotte ; west to Madison, Winston, 
 Salem and Alt. Airy. Twenty-two passenger trains arrive at and depart 
 from the depots of the city during the twenty-four hours ; and, as the time- 
 tables of a large part of these include only the hours of morning from 
 8 to lo A. M., and evening from 8 to ii p. M., the stir and bustle of moving 
 baggage-trucks, hurrying passengers, crowded waiting-rooms, rattling omni- 
 buses, hacks, &c., give the traveler a pleasing impression of the progressive 
 life of the city, which a walk through its crowded thoroughfares and along 
 its blocks of handsome business houses will confirm and strengthen. 
 
 Not through accident has Greensboro attained its present prominence on 
 the highway of railway travel. For more than half a century its leading 
 citizens — among whom were men entrusted, by virtue of their commanding 
 abilities and high character, with the most weighty public responsibilities, the 
 helm of State government and high place in its councils — have been ever 
 keenly alive to the material advancement of the people through great meas- 
 ures of internal improvement, devoting their energies, time and money not 
 only to the development of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley. Railway 
 system, but to the promotion and completion of other important roads in 
 North Carolina. Those who have come after them have not been careless 
 of the example or unworthy of the trust committed to their hands, and 
 active in the business circles of the town to-day are men who have done a 
 giant's work in weaving about it the network of steel rails which gives it 
 profitable traffic and smiling prosperity. 
 
 The City's Growth. 
 
 The fine surrounding farming country and its many other natural advan- 
 tages would never permit Greensboro to stagnate or languish ; consequently 
 its whole history is that of one of the thrifty, flourishing places of the State. 
 But its growth within a decade has been very marked; its progress during 
 the past five years has been especially gratifying, since the completion of the 
 Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway in 1884. The compact area enclos- 
 ing the city proper, and finding its centre in the public square containing 
 the court-house and United States Government building, has proven inade- 
 quate to the needs both of business men and householders ; and the exten- 
 sion of the suburbs — beautified by tasteful residences and neat cottages, and 
 enlivened by machine-shops and other industrial establishments — has been 
 constant and rapid. It is not extravagant to say that the growth of the 
 suburb of South Greensboro has been phenomenal. Five years have trans- 
 
CAPE FEAR AXD YADk-fX lALLEV RAILIVAY. J-J 
 
 formed it from a straggling settlement into a town of itself, with comfort- 
 able and elegant abodes, artistic flower yards and grounds, and beautiful 
 streets. 
 
 An estimate of population must of course be approximate, but that the 
 increase has been great is beyond question. Including extensive environs 
 south, southwest, west, and east, a careful computation, based on the number 
 of new buildings erected, the increased volume of business, and the largely- 
 augmented vote at the last election of the two townships in which the town 
 is comprised, would give Greensboro a place in the next census of not far 
 from seven thousand inhabitants. This includes all the suburbs which ha\'e 
 hitherto had no place in the count of the population. 
 
 Public Works and Improvements. 
 
 Nature's generosity and man's energy having made Greensboro a city, its 
 people have resolved that it should have the garniture, furnishing and conven- 
 iences of a cit)-, and for the past few j-ears the work of improvement has been 
 systematic and steady. 
 
 The fall of 1888 saw the completion of an extensive system of water-works, 
 of the combined standpipe and direct pressure form, with about three miles of 
 main pipe, fifty public and three private fire-hydrants, the tower being located 
 in the vicinity of the railway depots — a prominent and imposing object which 
 catches the e\'e of the traveler miles away. An ample supply of water is fur- 
 nished for the manifold uses of the communit}-, and for the most serious emer- 
 gencies of fire. 
 
 Sidewalks have been laid of Fa\"etteville brick, of veiy excellent and lasting 
 material, the roadway paved with granite blocks quarried at Flat Rock, near 
 Mt. Ain,'; and Elm Street, the main business thoroughfare, presents a hand- 
 some and attractive appearance throughout. 
 
 The fire department is excellent, the citizens universally giving it their 
 cordial co-operation and support, with a full realization of its importance. A 
 commodious and well-arranged building accommodates the steam fire-engine 
 and hook and ladder truck, with the horses in training, and the quarters of the 
 superv'ising night watchman. The department includes hose-reel teams, con- 
 veniently located in different quarters of the city, and other improvements are 
 in contemplation — the putting in of an electric fire-alarm, &c. 
 
 The city is lighted by both gas and electricity, and few places in the South 
 can claim a better or more effective system, taking in not only the business 
 streets but those ramif}'ing out into the remote suburbs. 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 Manufactures. 
 
 There are now, within the cit}' proper, or comprised in the hmits of its dif- 
 ferent suburbs : — 
 
 3 iron foundries, makintj plows, turbine and other wheels, ironware, 
 castings, &c., &:c. 
 
 2 sash, blind and door factories — one very extensive in its operations, 
 
 just fitted out with new machinery, demanding immense supplies of 
 raw material, and turning out a large amount of first-class work, which 
 is shipped b)' all the railroad lines to different points. 
 
 3 manufactories of plug tobacco. 
 
 1 cigar factory. 
 
 2 wagon factories. 
 
 1 carriage and buggy factory. 
 
 2 shoe factories. 
 
 I large merchant flour and grain mill (with another in course of com- 
 pletion). 
 I ice factory. 
 
 I spoke and handle factor)-. 
 I steam beer-bottling establishment. 
 Electric-light plant. 
 Gas-works. 
 I mattress factory. 
 
 1 terra cotta factor}'. 
 
 4 brick yards. 
 
 2 manufactories of tinware. 
 
 I manufactory of Tar Heel Liniment. 
 
 Throughout the countrv adjacent the fruit and vegetable canning industry 
 has assumed important proportions, with every indication of future remunera- 
 tive returns. 
 
 It will be seen that, in comparison with its wealth, influence and importance, 
 Greensboro's manufacturing interests are in their infancy. This condition of 
 things will not endure long. Outside capital will be attracted hither by the 
 unparalleled advantages offered ; enterprise and public spirit at home will 
 speedily utilize all the means available; cotton and woolen mills will follow 
 the wood-works, these to be supplemented by the furnace and the foundry. 
 
 Mekcaxtile Business, &<;. 
 
 The rapid building up of South Elm Street, as the demands of trade 
 passed the bounds of East and West Market, as well as the lively traffic now 
 daily seen on South Davie Street, are gratifying evidences of the annually 
 increasing business in all the branches of merchandise. Besides the local 
 trade which a tributary productive territory must throw into the hands of its 
 merchants, Greensboro's unrivaled facilities cannot fail to make it the entrepot 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 for a large surrounding area of country accessible b)' rail, and the future will 
 continue to swell the volume of its wholesale and retail business in dry goods, 
 groceries, hardware, ironware, agricultural implements, sash, doors, blinds and 
 other building material, &c., &c. Facts are more satisfactory than generalities, 
 and statistical information, carefully gathered from time to time, shows that the 
 aggregate of merchandise purchases of the city has increased nearly fifty per 
 cent, in the past three years. 
 
 The trade in dried fruits of this market is enormous, and includes apples, 
 peaches, pears, cherries and the different berries. Great improvement has been 
 made by the growers in the drying and treatment of fruits, and the goods 
 shipped from this point obtain a high rating in the Northern markets. The 
 fruit is reckoned, not by bushels, one may sa}', but by immense bins and great 
 car-loads, forty of the latter in dried apples alone being shipped by one firm 
 last season. This business is of some months' duration — from late spring until 
 autumn — and gives employment to hundreds in picking, drying and marketing. 
 . Such a business community demands proporcional monetary and financial 
 facilities, and these are^unished by three banks, exclusive of the savings and 
 deposit institution, one of which (the National Bank of Greensboro) showed, 
 during the twelve months of 1888, average daily deposits of $15,221.64, and 
 average daily checks paid §15,302.55, making it safe to place the total volume 
 of the bank's transactions at §40,000 per day. 
 
 Business Organizatiox. 
 
 The mercantile circles of the city are unified and incited to concert of 
 action by the Chamber of Commerce, which embraces in its membership the 
 leading and influential citizens of the place, whose efforts as an organized body 
 have already been potent in advancing the general welfare, and the Chamber 
 will not fail of the accomplishment of much good with the city's future 
 growth. 
 
 The Land and Improvement Company has been recently established, with 
 the object, primarily, of pushing the trade in leaf tobacco by the erection of 
 suitable buildings ; it will also prove useful in systematizing the sales of real 
 estate, placing investments, &c. 
 
 Tobacco Interests. 
 
 The tobacco business is in the hands of pushing, aggressive men, who do 
 not suffer it to flag, and finds its facilities for marketing, sales, handling of 
 the leaf and manufacture in three large sales warehouses, nine prize factories, 
 three plug and twist manufactories, and one cigar factory (the latter four 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 already mentioned under the heading of "manufactures"). The city's rightful 
 place as an important tobacco market has not hitherto been fully appreciated, 
 or, rather, fully utilized ; but strenuous efforts have of late been made to 
 accomplish this, with substantial results. The compiler is permitted to take 
 from the last annual report of Julius A. Gray, president of the Chamber of 
 Commerce, the following figures : — 
 
 "The leaf tobacco sold on this market from October, 1887, to 
 
 October, 1888, aggregates 2,276,173 lbs. 
 
 That purchased by our dealers on other markets during the 
 
 same period 792,3 1 1 lbs. 
 
 Making the total handled bv Greensboro tobacconists 3,068,484 lbs." 
 
 The above creditable exhibit is dwarfed by the developments of the 
 present season. Such has been the impetus given to the Greensboro tobacco 
 business that a good crop year would have increased these figures by at least 
 one-half. Within the past three years the number of prize-houses has risen 
 from three to nine, with a corresponding forward movement in the manufac- 
 ture of the leaf. The warehouses are selling tobacco from the twelve coun- 
 ties of Guilford, Surry, Stokes, Forsyth, Davie, Davidson, Randolph, Chatham, 
 Orange, Alamance, Caswell and Rockingham, besides large and frequent ship- 
 ments to them from Tennessee, Virginia and South Carolina. No market in 
 the State has access by rail and \\agon to a larger and more productive 
 area of the " Bright Tobacco Belt," and this, ^\ ith its unexcelled shipping 
 facilities and advantages of transportation to all outside markets, must event- 
 ually place Greensboro abreast of the foremost tobacco towns of the South. 
 
 School Advantages. 
 
 These are exceptionally fine, and will be examined with satisfaction by 
 all contemplating investment in propert}' and a permanent residence among 
 the people of this favored community. The Txhite graded school of the city 
 proper has an enrollment of about four hundred and thirt}', with an average 
 daily attendance of three hundred and thirty-five pupils, with efficient super- 
 intendence, complete departments in the different educational branches, and 
 a full corps of teachers. Bellevue Academy, in South Greensboro, offers the 
 same facilities to the children of that part of the city. 
 
 Greensboro Female College, occupying an imposing structure in the centre 
 of beautiful and spacious grounds at the head of West Market Street, is the 
 
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKIN ]\-iLLEY RAILWAY. 85 
 
 denominational high school of the Methodist Episcopal Church South in 
 North Carolina, and enjoj-s a wide area of patronage throughout the South. 
 The course of study is thorough, with painstaking preparations in fitting 
 feminine accomplishments, and the discipline wise and effective, making the 
 institution well deserve its high character and enviable popularity. There 
 are, besides, several good private schools; and it will not be amiss to note 
 here that county and town are worth}' of each other, for Guilford probably 
 contains more long-established, well-sustained schools within its borders than 
 any other county in the State. 
 
 Public Buildings. 
 
 If not in the number, certainly in the attractive architecture and artistic 
 finish, of its public buildings, Greensboro may invite comparison with other 
 towns of its wealth, size and population. The graded school building, in 
 North Greensboro, is graceful and elegant in style, with an interior admirably 
 fitted and arranged for its purposes, and an oratorium for musical, dramatic 
 or literary entertainments. 
 
 The county court-house is a model for buildings of the kind. The 
 architect succeeded in blending the durable and ornamental with unusual 
 taste and skill, and presented to the people of the county a piece of work 
 well worthy the expenditure of money required. 
 
 The Government building occupies a very eligible location on South Elm 
 Street — a massive and ornate piece of architecture. It contains the post- 
 office and the offices of the Federal Go\-ernment. 
 
 The National Bank of Greensboro has just completed a new building at 
 the corner of South Elm and East Washington Streets. It is of brick, with 
 granite facings, cornice and other exterior work, while the interior is finished 
 in beautiful native dressed pine, with an unusual completeness of arrange- 
 ment in vault, banking-room, i)resident's and directors' rooms, &c. Two 
 handsome stores also form parts of this commodious structure. The second 
 story has been specially arranged for and is rented for a term of years to the 
 Young Men's Club of Greensboro and the Chamber of Commerce, artd the 
 third story has been arranged for and rented for a term of years to the 
 Masonic Lodge of Greensboro. 
 
 A Pleasant Place of Sojourn. 
 
 A climate never approaching the severity of the North in winter and 
 particularly delightful in summer, a healthfulness unquestioned, and freedom 
 from the virulence of malarial diseases, enable Greensboro to offer no mean 
 attractions to the delicate invalid or the pleasure-seeking tourist. Especially 
 
86 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 during the months of May, June, July and August is it a charming abiding- 
 place. Within two or three hours' ride of the matchless sceneiy of the 
 Piedmont and Blue Ridge country, and the chalybeate, sulphur and alum 
 springs which make that section celebrated, while but little farther in point 
 of time and distance from the pleasures of Carolina Beach and Wrightsville 
 Sound, the Northern traveler may rest here as his " point of vantage," to 
 seek "green fields and pastures new" in a day's jaunt or a week's journeying 
 in any direction. 
 
 The Benbow and McAdoo Houses furnish first-rate hotel accommoda- 
 tions, combining all the conveniences, comforts and luxuries of table, room and 
 attendance which the experienced voyager demands and expects in these 
 enlightened days. So well known is the excellent character of the enter- 
 tainment afforded by them that the city has long been the Sunday stopping- 
 place of the traveling salesman, who puts no more important question to 
 himself on the eve of one of his rare periods of rest than Falstaff's query: 
 "Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?" 
 
 The City of Flowers — Characteristics ok the People. 
 
 The captivated fancy of the visiting stranger has given to Greensboro the 
 name of " City of Flowers," and the welcoming host who leads him, through 
 trim parterres, a wealth of foliage and a profusion of flowers, across the 
 hospitable threshold, fixes the colors of the charming picture with all the 
 refinements of cultured home-life. If the love of flowers be the indication of 
 not only an aesthetic taste but of a high moral nature, these are surely good 
 people, for their greenhouses seem as dear to them as their dwellings, and their 
 gardens are tended with more than the zealous care that watches over the 
 golden harvest of the husbandman. 
 
 Many elegant residences adorn the principal streets, and if the architecture 
 is not alwaj's fashioned strictly after approved and classic models, it is ever 
 beautiful and attractive, with the additional merits of comfort and convenience. 
 
 Greensboro is an eminently conservative community — nor could its citizens 
 well be otherwise, for their fathers were a homogeneous people, fostering the 
 same traditions and cherishing the same modest aims and aspirations ; here 
 lived, and still live, the Quakers and the Nicolites, whose impress is ever strong 
 where they move and have their being. This generation deems it best, even for 
 a new South, to "prove all things : hold fast that which is good;" and while it 
 would be difificult to imagine them in the vortex of a feverish " boom," losing 
 their heads over new methods and new ideas, it would be still more difficult to 
 imagine them given over to indifference and apathy in the face of progress and 
 substantial improvement. 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 89 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 Just beyond the northwestern Hmits of the town is Green Hill Cemetery, 
 occupying a commanding position which overlooks the city, and here has re- 
 cently been placed, with fitting ceremonies, a bronze statue of the Confederate 
 Soldier — an admirable work of art, where, on each lineament of the strife-worn 
 veteran, war's grim tragedy is traced. 
 
 There are published in Greensboro one daily and three weekly newspapers, 
 and one monthh* (college) magazine. 
 
 In close proximit}' to the depot of the road are the offices of the president 
 of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway, general superintendent, chief 
 ei^gineer, and their assistants. These occupy a commodious and handsome 
 building, with adjoining valuable property. 
 
 The countr}' immediately surrounding Greensboro is not only very pro- 
 ducti\'e of fine fruits for shipment abroad and home consumption, but is largely 
 devoted to the growth of all kinds of fruit trees adapted to climate and soil, 
 and there are numerous large nurseries within a radius of eight miles — in fact, 
 this whole section is one of the great fruit nurseries of the South. Some idea 
 of the extent of this business ma}- be gained from the statement of the fact 
 that the freight charges on fruit-tree shipments from this point annually aggre- 
 gate from §7,000 to §8,000. 
 
 A great increase has also been recently made in the growth of green- 
 house and exotic flowers, the large Pomona Nurseries in the vicinity of the 
 city having constructed extensive greenhouses and made varied plantings of 
 trees and slirubs for the trade in floriculture. Not onl_\- this, but the great 
 advantages offered for grazing b}- the lowlands and the territory bordering 
 the streams have given an impetus to grazing and stock-raising, and there 
 is every probability that Guilford will soon be ranked as one of the "dairy" 
 counties of the State. 
 
"Piedmont and IVjoUntain "©iVi^ion. 
 
 From Greensboro to Mt. airy-seventy miles. 
 
 RAVERSED by this division are a portion of Guilford and the 
 counties of Rockingham (tributary), Forsyth, Stokes and Surry. 
 Here, indeed, is a goodly heritage of the treasures of earth and the 
 bounties of nature waiting through the silence of centuries for 
 dc\'elopment at the hands of man. All through the western and northern 
 portions of Guilford county, fringing the sinuous banks of Haw River, stretch 
 majestic forests, never yet profaned by the touch of the woodman's ax ; clirtging 
 to the spurs and reaching up from the defiles of the Suaratown Mountains, 
 and overshadowing with their boundless canopy the valleys of the Yadkin and 
 Ararat Rivers, are immense quantities of the different oaks, poplar, walnut, 
 hickory, wild cherrj', ash, dogwood and locust. 
 
 The soil is the red and yellow of the gneiss and granite geological formation, 
 and is susceptible of enormous yields of the cereals, tobacco, fruits and vegeta- 
 bles. In the mountain section proper of this favored division are grown 
 apples pronounced among the finest in the world, cabbage of enormous size and 
 remarkably fine quality, while the crops of potatoes, hay, oats, rye and buck- 
 wheat are wonderful. In a country so exuberant and prolific it is not surprising 
 that we find fine horses, cattle, and sheep ; it is the natural home of the 
 grasses — the land of the dairy and its rich products. The greater portion of 
 this division is also part of the "Bright Tobacco Belt ;" and, although its cul- 
 ture has increased very rapidly within the past few years, the development of 
 the tobacco resources of this fertile region has hardly begun. 
 
 Minerals. 
 
 No part of North Carolina excels this section in the extent and value of its 
 iron deposits. Through the centre of the first county in the division — 
 Guilford — stretches a range of magnetic ore for more than twenty-five miles, 
 than which no higher grade can be found anywhere in the world, and which is 
 now constantly shipped to the furnaces of the North by rail. The same high 
 grade magnetic ore is found near Danbury, in Stokes county, and immense 
 
 (93) 
 
94 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 quantities lie along the Yadkin River. Dr. Lesley, State Geologist of Penn- 
 sylvania, is high authority for the statement that " the purity of the Guilford 
 county ore is absolute, none of it containing either sulphur or phosphorus. As 
 to the titanium, its presence makes no difficulty under judicious furnace manage- 
 ment. As to its quantity, centuries of heavy mining could not exhaust it." 
 
 In three analyses of the ore of Great Bend and in the vicinity of tlie Pilot 
 Mountain, there was of sulphur, none; of phosphorus, 0.04, 0.05, 0.04. 
 
 Manufacturing. 
 
 We are treating now of a new country, awakened to a progressive life less 
 than a year ago, and its advancement in milling, manufacturing and other 
 pursuits is yet to come. Though inferior to that of the Cape Fear and Deep 
 River sections, the water-power of this division is extensive and unfailing. 
 The Ararat and its tributary creeks would more than supply the motive power 
 for dozens of mills supporting a population of thousands. 
 
 THE MADISON BRANCH. 
 
 From Stokesdale a branch of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway 
 has been nearly completed to Madison, in Rockingham county, giving facilities 
 of freight and travel to that flourishing town and to a country rich in grain 
 resources and tobacco. The bridge across the river is rapidly constructing, and 
 trains will be running into Madison by the 1st of June, 1889, although there 
 has been for four months a regular schedule taking freight and passengers 
 up to the banks of the river. 
 
 WALNUT COVE. 
 
 No place on the line has evinced a more gratifying spirit of progress than 
 Walnut Cove, and its improvement in every branch of business and industry 
 is very noticeable. It has the good fortune to possess citizens of energy, who 
 know the advantages vouchsafed to them and are prompt to utilize them. 
 Besides a considerable mercantile trade, the tobacco business employs many 
 operatives, and puts in circulation a large amount of ready money in the 
 payment of wages. Tanneries, flour and grist mills, &c., are also thriving 
 industries at this point. Walnut Cove offers the right sort of welcome to 
 the stranger in an excellent hotel, than which no town can have a better 
 advertisement. 
 
 Connection between Winston and Walnut Cove has been recently made 
 by the Roanoke and Southern Railroad, the contemplated extension of which 
 leads it via Martinsville to Roanoke, Va. 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 97 
 
 DANBURY. 
 
 Hardly a town in the State can clierish more reasonable hopes of a bright 
 future than Danbury, in Stokes county, distant eleven miles from the Cape 
 Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway. The energies of those thrifty people find 
 employment in a good general merchandise business, besides that accruing from 
 the output of numerous large tobacco factories, tanneries, flour and corn mills, 
 and the building which the progress of the town demands. 
 
 The tributary' country is productive, but wild, broken and precipitous, and 
 one would feel no surprise at the catastrophe which might happen to a farmer 
 of this region, like that related by jNIark Twain of the Swiss agriculturist on 
 the Alps, who, while hoeing in his field, fell ofT his farm and broke his neck. 
 But it is a "diamond in the rough," for the earths bosom heaves tumultuously 
 in the plenitude of its hidden wealth. Immense deposits exist here of iron, 
 limestone, asbestos, mica, soapstone, lead, potter's clay, plumbago, berj-l, S:c. 
 This profusion of mineral resources, as they are fully developed, cannot fail to 
 make that region populous and prosperous, establishing and multiplying all 
 kinds of manufacturing industries. 
 
 PIEDMONT SPRINGS. 
 
 Between two and three miles from Danbury are Piedmont Springs, with 
 chalybeate waters of very fine curative qualities. This is a delightful resort, 
 attracting crowds of visitors, both of invalids who seek the restoration of health, 
 and of those who desire to participate in its many social pleasures and attrac- 
 tions. The new Piedmont Hotel was ready for the reception of guests on 
 the 15th of May, 1889 — an elegant structure of imposing exterior, and fitted 
 up with all the conveniences pertaining to the best modern hotels. 
 
 Moore's alum and iron spring in the same vicinity has also for years been 
 esteemed by hundreds who have tested the efficacy of its waters. 
 
 GERMANTON. 
 
 Germanton is a pretty town, beautifully located, and affording ample 
 evidences of the thrift}- and progressive spirit of its people. It draws a lucrative 
 trade from a good farming section, and its tobacco business is especially large 
 and daily increasing. Saw and planing mills, flour and grist mills, and several 
 lime-kilns are busy and profitable industries. The Germanton people take 
 pride in their town and the great advantages of their section ; the social 
 attractions and school and church facilities of the place are fine. 
 
 Near Germanton are very extensive beds of the best limestone, nov/ 
 worked at an excellent profit. The following analysis was furnished in 18S6 
 
98 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 by Dr. Charles W. Dabney, director of the North Carohna Experiment 
 Station : — 
 
 Carbonate of Lime 95-07 
 
 Matter insoluble in acids 4.93 
 
 Summerfield, Stokesdale, Belcw's Creek, Rural Hall, Dalton, Pinnacle, Pilot 
 Mountain, Ararat, are all thriving stations — shipping points for tobacco, timber, 
 mineral ores and country products. Rural Hall has recently been connected 
 with Winston by the Richmond and Danville Railroad, which will doubtless 
 accomplish much in the development of the surrounding country. 
 
 MOUNT AIRY. 
 
 Mount Airy, the present western terminus of the Cape Fear and Yadkin 
 Valley Railway, is in Surry county, within five miles of the nearest point on 
 the base of the Blue Ridge, with an elevation of about eleven hundred feet 
 above sea level. Long a thriving village and the trade centre of a large and 
 prosperous agricultural community, its growth and increase in business, indus- 
 trial enterprises and population have been almost unprecedented since 1880, 
 the census of which year gave it a population of five hundred and nineteen, 
 increased during the past eight years to fifteen hundred. 
 
 This gratifying progress has been especially noticeable during the past four 
 or five years, when the completion of the road to Greensboro, and its steady 
 extension onward, gave the people of this section an undeniable guarantee of 
 speedy railway connection with Middle and Eastern North Carolina and the 
 great world beyond. They set their house in order for its coming, and the old 
 political shibboleth of "the mountains ablaze" was exchanged for the better 
 one of the fires kindled in the factories and machine-shops along the mountain- 
 sides ;■ the simplicit}' of rural life did not draw them aloof from the oppor- 
 tunities of material advancement, and the grandeur of their abiding-place and 
 the copious gifts of nature enlarged their views, for — 
 
 "Serene, not sullen, even the solitudes 
 Of this unsighing people of the woods." 
 
 Mercantile business straightway received a forward impetus; building lots 
 were in eager demand at enhanced prices; the tools of the architect and 
 artisan were plied without ceasing; hotel accommodations were enlarged and 
 improved ; the prospect of accessibility to the great outside markets was a 
 stimulus to the agriculture of the tributary region, and the railway celebra- 
 tion of June 20th, 1888, assembled thousands of visitors to behold a goodly 
 flourishing town, with regular thoroughfares, handsome residences and blocks 
 of commodious stores. 
 
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKJX VALLEY RAIUVAY. 
 
 To-day, the industries of Mt. Airy and the vicinity embrace four cotton 
 factories, three woolen mills, eleven tobacco factories (including cigars), four 
 tobacco sales-warehouses, three wagon factories, four grist and four saw mills, 
 machine and blacksmith shops, &c. 
 
 The future prosperity of Mt. Airy is to be commensurate with the 
 extent to which its people utilize the facilities for manufacturing within 
 their reach. Almost within the corporate limits of the town, on Ararat 
 River and Stewart's and LovelTs Creeks, are eight water-powers of from 
 fourteen to eighteen feet head, and ample volume of water, furnishing in 
 the aggregate from ten hundred to twelve hundred horse-power. Laurel 
 Bluff Cotton Mills, situated a little more than a mile from town, runs two 
 thousand spindles and forty-five looms, manufacturing plaids and warp-yarn, 
 and employing fifty-five operatives — native labor. The brick for the building 
 was made on the spot from the cla}- taken from the excavation ; wood is 
 placed at the door at one dollar per cord ; satisfactory hands can be ob- 
 tained at fort}- cents per day ; and, although the cotton is bought in Char- 
 lotte and Fayetteville, this mill can afford to make its goods at prices that 
 would be unprofitable under less favorable conditions. 
 
 As a summer resort JNIt. Airy cannot fail to gain most favorable notice 
 and win popularity with tourists as each year goes by. The salubrity of the 
 climate, whose breezes, cooled on the rarefied heights of peak and knob and 
 lofty ridge, come laden with the healthful balsamic odors of the mountain 
 fir and pine ; the matchless scenery of towering, blue-curtained height, deep 
 valley, rock-girt ravine and embowered glade ; the profusion of creature 
 comforts — rich cream and butter, fresh meats, poultry, fruits and vegetables — 
 all render this an abode of restful ease and enjoyment. 
 
 The new Blue Ridge Hotel, with a front of one hundred and twent)-- 
 five feet, containing about one hundred rooms, embellished with even,- at- 
 traction and furnished with every convenience, will be ready for the reception 
 of health and pleasure seekers by the opening of the summer season of 18S9. 
 
 FLAT ROCK. 
 
 Distant but a short ride from Mt. Airy is " Flat Rock," a wonder of 
 nature in this land teeming with objects of interest. A magnificent bed of 
 granite nearly fort}- acres in extent lies above the surface of the earth, 
 ready to the hand and tool of the workman. The stone splits in great 
 slabs, and is quarried with remarkable ease and little expense, without the 
 aid of blasting powder. Immense quantities are daily transported over the 
 line of railway to different points for building, masonry, paving, &c. A year 
 or tu-o ago a single piece of this stone was worked out from the quarry 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 ninety-two feet in length, but this lias been recently excelled b)' an unbroken 
 monolith one hundred and fourteen feet long. 
 
 Every cubic foot of masonry for the magnificent iron bridge o\-er the 
 Cape Fear River at Faj-etteville, more than one-eighth of a mile in length, 
 is transported the distance of one hundred and sixt}'-seven miles from a 
 splendid quarry near Flat Rock .iiid more convenient to the railroad. 
 
 WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS. 
 
 About midway between ^It. .\iry and the foot of the Blue Ridge are 
 the "^Vhite Sulphur Springs," offering comfortable hotel buildings, good 
 rooms and wholesome fare, and the}' are liberally patronized by those who 
 appreciate the medicinal efficac}' o{ the water, an analj'sis of which is very 
 .similar to that of the famous Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs of Virginia. 
 
 The tobacco lands of this immediate section are unsurpassed, the grasses 
 grow luxuriantly, fine crops of corn are raised on the alluvial soil along the 
 streams, and the small grains give excellent harvests. No finer apple can be 
 found in any market than that produced here, while the " Mt. Air}' 
 cabbage" (grown on the Blue Ridge slopes) is already eagerly inquired for 
 in the Wilmington, Fa}'etteville and Greensboro markets. 
 
 Wheeler, in his history, credits Holman's Ford, near Wilkesboro, with the 
 honor of being the home of Daniel Boone, the great Kentucky pioneer; but 
 the Surry people insist that here at least was his hunting-ground and the 
 scene of man}' of his exploits. Certain it is that the old inhabitants have 
 stored in memoi-}-, through tradition and story, minute accounts of the prowess 
 and skill of Boone, Findley, Monay, Holden and their comrades. 
 
 Within a few miles of this pleasant town married, lived and died the 
 Siamese. T«ins, leaving children \\\\o are now reputable citizens of the 
 community, but who exhibit very plaiiil}' the Mongol type in face, form and 
 mental characteristics. This will be of interest to the curious reader, as 
 illustrating the strange vicissitudes of fortune in this life : Taken from the 
 semi-barbarism of the Southern Pacific Ocean, to be the wonder of gaping 
 crowds and the stud}- of scientific men, these strange beings ended life in 
 right orthodox fashion — having consummated marriage under Christian ordi- 
 nances, and passed }'ears of prosaic existence as well-to-do mountain farmers 
 in one of the commonwealths of the most enlighteiied republic on earth. -7 
 
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 i «o (»i tri-/. S vCr J T ^wlc- /■« jC 
 
 
 
 AbLh.N !■ IJI- I'IN.NACLE Ol' I'lLOT MOVNTAIN. 
 
Scenery oj" tl]e t^oUte. 
 
 ATURE, which has been so lavish of her bounties through all the 
 great area of territory traversed by the Cape Fear and Yadkin 
 Valley Railway — his own prolific " \'ine and fig tree" to the 
 patriarch, bursting sheaves of golden grain to the sower and reaper, 
 the dashing water-ways of a smiling land to the spinner and weaver, and for 
 the miner the heaped-up treasures of the earth's bosom — has interwoven with 
 all charming pictures of mountain, glade, forest and coast. 
 
 A ride of an hour or two from its eastern terminus, b}- rail, steamer or 
 carriage, places the tra\-eler in the presence of the ocean's sublimity and 
 " boundless immensity ; " while, so far away that they seem as white-winged, 
 fluttering birds, spreading sails ride upon the billows, and steamers plow 
 broad furrows through the briny way. Beyond the dazzling white sand, 
 and far away across the outjutting strips of salt marsh, lie the dismantled 
 battlements and casemates of Forts Fisher and Caswell, where the drows}' 
 sentinel dozed away his watch in the "piping times of peace," or cordons of 
 bombarding ships, breached walls and thousands of tons of hissing, hurtling 
 shells emphasized the terrible magnificence of war. 
 
 For miles be\-ond Wilmington the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railwaj- 
 runs through the " low country," where grow the water, live and white oaks, 
 of sturdy trunk and wide-spreading branches, draped in the gray river moss, 
 whose light, graceful festoons sway softly with ever}- passing wind. Splendid 
 groves of this beautiful tree are common throughout this region, never without 
 these fleecy wreaths of moss, and the effect is indescribably pleasing. 
 
 The gloom of dense morass and impenetrable swamp which fringe the copi- 
 ous streams that water this division is relieved by the luxuriant growth of plant 
 and clinging vine, which in summer charm the eye with the bright colors of 
 innumerable wild flowers and fill the air with fragrance. The sweet bay and, 
 more rarely, the magnolia are found throughout all these lowland forests. 
 
 MOORE'S CREEK BATTLE-GROUND. 
 
 On the line of the road, in New Hanover County, near the mouth of Moore's 
 Creek, is the battle-ground of that name, where, on the 27th of February, 1776, 
 the Royalists were so severely defeated by an inferior force under Colonels Cas- 
 well and Lillington. In this engagement Captain McDonald, the husband of 
 
 (105) 
 
I06 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY, 
 
 Flora, was taken prisoner — the first stroke of hapless fortune which followed 
 them to the end, and prompted Flora McDonald to exclaim that she "had 
 served, at the risk of life, both the House of Stuart and the House of Hanover, 
 and was not much'the gainer by either." 
 
 The country embraced in the upper Cape Fear and Deep River sections is 
 without notable and striking beauties of scencr}', beyond the great stretches of 
 noble forests, the winding streams, and the broad acres of a thrifty agricultural 
 people. Utterly lacking in the picturesque, the long-leaf pine, to the stranger 
 beholding it for the first time, is invested with a peculiar interest. A great 
 orchard or plantation (as it is called) of pine worked for turpentine possesses 
 singular features belonging to it alone. The great height of the trees, with 
 their resinous trunks and boxes ; their remarkable regularity, which permits 
 long vistas of perspective through the forest ; the strange bunches of needles 
 (the pine's sole foliage), which repeat the "song of the wind" in a soft, mur- 
 muring sough, have upon the eye and the imagination a pleasant and soothing 
 effect. 
 
 GUILFORD BATTLE-GROUND. 
 
 Five miles west of Greensboro is the battle-ground of Guilford Court-house, 
 where, on the 15th of March, 1781, Gen. Nathaniel Greene and his army met 
 the forces of Cornwallis in a hard-fought engagement, which destroyed the 
 foothold of British power in this State, and was the beginning of the end of 
 the prestige and supremacy of British arms in America. To a distinguished 
 and patriotic citizen of the city of Greensboro the people of North Carolina are 
 indebted for invaluable service in rescuing the fame of our troops on that field 
 from unmerited reproach — service which has been recognized by an annual 
 appropriation to the battle-ground by the General Assembly of the State, to be 
 followed probably by a still larger appropriation for a monument by the United 
 States Government. The battle-ground is kept in admirable order, and is 
 beautified with monuments, shaded walks, gushing springs, neat cottages, a 
 museum of revolutionary relics, &c. The stirring events which render the spot 
 historic are annually celebrated in May by a grand pageant and oration. 
 
 PILOT MOUNTAIN. 
 
 Nearly mid«-a}' on the line of the Piedmont and Mountain Division is the 
 Pilot Mountain, with an altitude of twenty-four hundred and fifty-eight feet, 
 whose summit is capped by the Pinnacle, an irregular cylindrical or truncated 
 cone-shaped mass of rock with a surface area of about half an acre. The Pilot 
 is divided into two parts — cleft asunder, doubtless, by some convulsion of nature 
 in past ages, the lesser mountain merging gradually into the hills beyond. The 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. IO9 
 
 ascent to the Pinnacle is easy, and the latter is mounted b\- stone steps and 
 hidders ; during the dizzy chnib the guide does not fail to tell you that fair 
 woman comes to the accomplishment of this feat of the tourist with a leveler 
 head than protecting man ; she rarely fails to mount to the top, while her 
 escort, as often as not, surveys the towering height — and takes his seat at the 
 base to await the return of the party. Accompan}'ing illustrations give beautiful 
 views of the mountain from different points on the road. Piloting the Indian, 
 in centuries past, through the trackless wilds of his hunting-grounds, standing- 
 alone in nature's vast expanse, it still keeps watch and ward over hamlet, vil- 
 lage and field — the fruits of a civilization which has brought the steel rail and 
 the rushing train, pacing its passing tribute in the long trail of the engine's 
 smoke that floats upward and curtains its rugged sides. 
 
 The Suaratown Mountains lie off to the right of the Cape Fear and 
 Yadkin Valley Railway — a range of lofty hills presenting varied and charm- 
 ing pictures of the graceful, beautiful and picturesque. 
 
 ARARAT RIVER. 
 
 Here the scenery assumes a character of wild and rugged grandeur which 
 
 finds its counterpart only in the majestic pictures of the transmontane region. 
 
 The road winds through deep cuts and precipitous defiles, hugging the sides 
 
 of the hills— 
 
 "Rock-ribbed and ancient as the snn," 
 
 and flanked by the Ararat River's tortuous channel and rocky bed. Engi- 
 neering skill has here triumphed over wonderful obstacles, and the traveler 
 is struck b\- the many points of similarity presented by this portion of the 
 route and parts of the Pennsylvania Central Railroad beyond the " Horse- 
 shoe." 
 
 THE BLUE RIDGE. 
 
 The present western terminus of the road offers a grand view of the 
 main chain of the Blue Ridge Mountains, which to the north have a height 
 of nearl}- three-fourths of a mile; two miles distant is the beautiful Slate 
 Mountain, and, farther on, Little Mountain, a great spur from the main 
 range ; to the southeast the beauties of the Suaratown Mountains charm 
 the eye as the mists of morning clear awa\', and the Pilot looms grandl}- 
 in the distance. 
 
 The extension of the Cape Fear and Yadkin \'alle}" Railwa)', and its 
 connection with the Norfolk and Western beyond the State line, will furnish 
 to the vo\'ager the scenerj' of a wild mountain country in its perfection, and 
 the surmounting and passage of the Blue Ridge will carry him through the 
 wonders attending the construction of railway umler such circumstances as 
 uill find their parallel in those about Round Knob. 
 
l^eCGipituloition. 
 
 HE compiler of this work has followed the line of the Cape Fear and 
 Yadkin Valle\- Railway from tidewater to the foot of the Blue 
 Ridge, noting carefully and gathering steadily in his examination 
 of the resources of the country developed by the line. Except 
 where he has felt justified in using approximate figures in his estimate of the 
 increase of population since the last census, he has aimed to deal only in plain 
 facts, and if there is aught inaccurate or untrue within these pages, he does 
 not know of it. That the road is well worthy of the important place assigned 
 to it by the people of North Carolina among the great internal improvements 
 of the South, is shown by the following summary of statistical information : — 
 It leads from northwest to southeast, through a belt of nineteen counties, 
 sustaining a population of 363,572, embraced in a territorj' of 12,759 square 
 miles, or 8,165,760 square acres, improved and unimproved, with a total tax val- 
 uation of $22,933,045, and a real and personal property valuation of §48,572,417. 
 The rate of taxation in this State is remarkably low ; were it anything like that 
 of the Eastern and Middle States, the above figures would be increased from 
 $22,933,045 to at least §45,000,000, and from §48,572,417 to §60,000,000. 
 
 This broad domain grows an infinite variety of agricultural products: corn, 
 wheat, rye, oats (of which the midland and western sections raise a surplus), 
 rice, peanuts, Irish and sweet potatoes, field-peas, chufas, sorghum, cotton, 
 tobacco, and every garden vegetable produced from one end of the Atlantic 
 coast to the other. Of fruits, the whole region is especially prolific : the pome- 
 granate, white and blue fig, a greater number of distinct species of grapes than 
 can be found in any other Southern State, apricots, nectarines, the Japan plum, 
 apples, pears, peaches, plums, cherries, delicious melons, and all the small fruits 
 in profusion. So diversified are the products throughout the extent of the line, 
 and so marked are the climatic differences, that an agreeable and profitable 
 interchange of commodities is possible between the people of one region and 
 the other — those of the tidewater and low countrj' tendering to their friends of 
 the Piedmont and mountain section the first fruits of their labors in early spring, 
 vegetables of all kinds, while yet stern nature holds locked in her embrace 
 forest and field and glade of the up-country. Thence shall come, when the 
 earlier seasons of the coast have brought their treasures and passed awa\', the 
 
 ("3) 
 
114 CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILwJ^. 
 
 offerings quickened into luxuriant growth by mountain breeze and clime : ap- 
 ples, pears, peaches, cherries, the Blue Ridge cabbage (the finest in the world), 
 and the dairy products of this goodly land. 
 
 The strides made in manufacturing have been rapid ; but, in comparison 
 with the magnificent possibilities furnished by the water-power along the line, 
 the establishment of the different branches of skilled industry may be said to 
 have hardly commenced. Besides cotton milling, the almost inexhaustible forest 
 area renders easy and feasible the manufacture of nearly everything useful in 
 wood : wheels, hubs, spokes, handles, shuttles, buckets, furniture, the wooden 
 gear of agricultural implements, and, in fine, all the woodenwares entering into 
 the daily domestic and business emploj'ments of man. Iron and coal — the 
 quality and quantity of which have been attested by unimpeachable authority — 
 offer abundant material and unusual facilities for the establishment of found- 
 ries and the manufacture of car and carriage wheels and axles, plows, axes, the 
 different tools of the artisan, &c. 
 
 Collateral advantages combine to make this one of the favored manufactu- 
 ring districts of the world : the raw material is easy of access by the mills; fuel 
 can be obtained at a merely nominal price at the doors of the factories ; the 
 general mildness of the climate admits of uninterrupted labor all the year round; 
 there is no restless element, infected by " strikes " and fomenting discontent ; 
 an intelligent population are quick to learn the trades, and are soon adepts at 
 the loom, the spindle and the engine-wheel. 
 
 The writer was careful to question the proprietors of the different mills 
 herein described as to whether native labor was employed, and whether it was 
 satisfactory, and in nearly every instance an affirmative reply has been given. 
 
 Minerals. 
 
 Red and brown sandstone, a superior quality of granite, soapstone, gold, 
 coal and iron exist in quarries, beds, mines, deposits and ranges in the two 
 upper divisions of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway — the last two 
 not only of paramount importance in their application to the useful arts of 
 man, but constantly demanded in all his industrial avocations and the round 
 of his daily life. What may we not expect in the future from the full 
 utilization of the unparalleled riches of this section ! 
 
 Timber Resources. 
 
 Nearly all the different kinds of timber found in the shipyards of the 
 great markets of this country grow immediately upon or contiguous to the 
 line of this railway : the pine (alone worth millions of dollars annually in 
 
r 
 
CAPE FEAR AND YADKIN VALLEY RAILWAY. 
 
 lumber and naval stores), all the species of oak, cedar, holly, cherry, cypress, 
 juniper, hickor)-, dogwood, walnut, sycamore, persimmon, elm, gum, chestnut, 
 beech, locust, ash, maple and other less important woods. 
 
 The lesser plant flora is also rich and varied, the lower counties produc- 
 ing many shrubs and flowers, which make it one of the most remunerative 
 honey-producing sections of North Carolina, while in the mountainous counties 
 are found many valuable medicinal herbs, which are gathered in veiy con- 
 siderable quantity, and constitute a profitable industry. 
 
 A Great Commercial Highway. 
 
 No better summing-up could be made of the " natural indications of this 
 route as the necessarj- track of a commercial highway" than by the following 
 terse quotation from an esteemed authority : — 
 
 " It is the shortest line to the head of navigation (and outlet by sea) for 
 almost the whole middle and Piedmont regions of the State. This has 
 been, and always must be, a most weighty consideration in settling the per- 
 manent channels of traffic. It lies, its whole length, through a region whose 
 climate never affects traffic for a day in the year. It crosses at right angles 
 three great north and south railroad lines, and so makes them also feeders 
 to its freight supplies." 
 
 Inducements for Investment. 
 
 In all the nineteen counties included in this route good farming lands 
 can be procured at from five dollars 'to twenty dollars per acre. Excellent 
 water-powers are to be obtained at reasonable figures, while in the cities, 
 towns and villages real estate is held at moderate prices. Almost univer- 
 sally good water, a salubrious climate, a satisfactoiy system of hired labor, 
 law-abiding and intelligent communities, enjoying as good church and school 
 advantages as limited means and a sparse population will permit — all com- 
 bine to make this an attractive land and a pleasant home to the industrious 
 settler from any quarter of the globe. 
 
"T^l]e "Tran^montane E^^ten^ion, 
 
 AVING accomplished this great work within the borders of the 
 State ; almost tracking the sands of the coast at its eastern 
 terminus; traversing the bottoms and gently undulating uplands 
 of the Cape Fear section ; pushing aside the obstacles of boulder 
 and rock through the rugged midland region, and climbing undauntedly 
 onward up to the crowning, lofty gateway leading into the great valley of the 
 West ; having at length brought to its fruition the Cape Fear and Yadkin 
 Valley system : — shall the barriers of mountain and gorge stay its further 
 progress ? Shall not, rather, the aggressive Western civilization hail its 
 coming, and greet its forward movement with connections to the great highway 
 of travel and traffic on to Cincinnati ? 
 
 But a few miles remain between the present western terminus of the road 
 and the State line, beyond which it is placed in direct communication with a 
 broad valley, or, rather, a succession of valleys of wonderful fertility, immense 
 resources and vast natural wealth. Meeting it from the rich pasture and stock- 
 raising lands of Southwest Virginia, the Norfolk and Western Railroad 
 would carry it on to the treasures of a country fairer, if possible, in East 
 Tennessee, whence further connections would open to its transportation the 
 almost untouched riches of Southeastern Kentucky. To him who has but 
 cursorily glanced at the products of this "full-blooded heart of the continent," 
 the bare statement of facts must seem the language of extravagance. Occupy- 
 ing an area equal in extent to one-fifth of the territory of North Carolina, the 
 coal fields of Eastern Kentucky, with all the fertile and diversified region, 
 including Southwest Virginia, are reasonably sure to become the centre of a 
 great iron industry. Extensive deposits of coal, in beds ranging from fifteen to 
 twenty feet in thickness, in conjunction with immense ranges of iron ore, cannot 
 fail to make this a country abounding in varied and profitable industries. 
 
 But this is only a tithe of the wealth awaiting utilization and development 
 in this fair valley. While from its skirts ascends the smoke of hundreds of 
 smelting furnaces, it holds in its lap a granary for almost a world's consumption. 
 The agricultural products seem to be without limit. Corn and all the small 
 grains, the products of the dairy and the orchard, besides salt, plaster and great 
 droves of fine horses, mules and cattle — now conveyed by toilsome means and 
 
 (ii8) 
 
CAPE FEAR AXD YADKIN VALLEY RAILIVAY. I I9 
 
 roundabout ways to the extreme Southern States and the Northern markets — 
 would then furnish all the year through an amount of freight which would tax 
 the most extensive railwa\' transportation facilities, for this route would offer the 
 most speedy and direct transit to the Atlantic slope and the seacoast. 
 
 The unfinished part of the line of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Rail- 
 wa\- is by an excellent route of about five miles to the State border, and 
 connection will probably be made with the Norfolk and Western Railroad at 
 Willis' Gap. When once this direct communication is made, it must inevitably 
 be followed by connections which will graft it permanently upon the great chain 
 of railway lines extending through the Cumberland Valley to Louisville and 
 Knoxville, and onward to the great Western States by the South Atlantic and 
 Ohio and Charleston, Cumberland Gap and Chicago Railroads. 
 
 When we take into consideration the mineral wealth abounding throughout 
 the great plateau of Western North Carolina, either on the line of the Cape Fear 
 and" Yadkin Valley Railway or within eas}' connection thereto : — the vast mag- 
 netite iron ranges, including the rich and extensive Cranberry deposits, and 
 extending eastward to the great beds of Stokes, Guilford and Chatham — the 
 great industries to be speedilj- developed by the transmontane extension will 
 find their parallel only in the most flourishing manufacturing districts of the 
 country. The demand for coke in the manufacture of iron and steel — often 
 hitherto transported from one thousand to twelve hundred miles to the smelting 
 furnaces — is increasing year by year in tremendous ratio, and the western exten- 
 sion lays the shortest and quickest line of rail between coal bed and iron deposit, 
 bringing together by eas}^ transportation all the materials for the successive 
 steps of iron and steel manufacture. 
 
 In the preparation and arrangement of these pages the difficulty has been 
 not to gather material, but to summarize and compress that material into con- 
 venient form ; an "embarrassment of riches" rather than a poverty of resources 
 meets the compiler of the great and diversified resources developed by the Cape 
 Fear and Yadkin ^"alley Railway. Do not the abundant facts presented justify 
 the claim that no road in the South offers superior advantages or holds out 
 brighter promise of progress and prosperity to the region through which it 
 passes ? Judicious investment of capital in manufacturing enterprises for the 
 utilization of the varied resources of this favored land will make bustling cities 
 of the towns, and thriving towns of the villages and hamlets which dot the line 
 of road from border to border of the State ; immigration will bring an indus- 
 trious population to augment the wealth and producing power of thrifty com- 
 munities; and the near future will bring the realization of the long-cherished 
 dream of the completion of the 
 
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