Railroad Building.

It is a source of pleasure to the Commissioners and of gratulation to our fellow-citizens, to note the rapid strides with which railroad enterprises have progressed in Kentucky within the last eighteen months.

The rich coal fields and boundless timber resources of Eastern Kentucky, partially developed by the completion of the Lexington and Big Sandy Railroad, have been prominently brought into public view by the indefatigable labors and admirable reports of the Geological Survey; and still further developed by the opening of extensive mines on the Cincinnati Southern and the Knoxville Branch of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.

But the great body of the coal and timber lands of Eastern and South-eastern Kentucky still remain untouched by any channel of transportation. And it was to supply this desideratum that several new roads and extensions of existing roads have been projected and partially or wholly completed. But whilst the eye of the Commonwealth was fixed upon the riches of the eastern, the almost neglected wealth of the western district attracted the attention of capitalists.

Years ago Professor David Dale Owen, the first State Geologist, surveyed the coal fields of the western district and found the coals superior in quality and inexhaustible in quantity. He had them subjected to chemical analysis, as they have since been subjected to practical experiment, and several of these coals were found to possess the finest coking qualities. It has long been known that there exists valuable iron ores in the country bordering on the Cumberland river. Prior to the civil war extensive furnaces were in successful operation in Trigg and Lyon counties, in Kentucky, and in the Tennessee counties bordering the Cumberland. Nowhere in Kentucky, if, indeed, anywhere in the whole country, are the coking coals and iron ores in such close proximity and susceptible of being so speedily and cheaply brought together, as are the limonites of Trigg and Lyon, and the coal measures of the lower Tradewater in Union county.

It is to be regretted that a mistaken economy has withheld from the Geological Survey the means to throw the light of

scientific investigation upon the iron beds of the Kentucky counties lying on the lower Cumberland river. Such an investigation would doubtless have directed the attention of capitalists to the hidden riches of this neglected region, and have resulted in a strong impulse to the wealth-producing industry of the country.

It is true that these coal fields had been penetrated by the Louisville and Nashville, and Chesapeake, Ohio and Southwestern Railroads, which have been carrying to market great quantities of coal from their southern border; and it is also true that in the long past the Cumberland river ores had been worked; but it is equally true that the vast Tradewater outcrop of coals were unknown to the interior markets, and that the iron works have not only been idle since the war, but appeared doomed to permanent abandonment. Large investments had been made in the coal mines of DeKoven, in Union county, where the great western coal measures crop out. These mines have been in operation since 1849. "Union county is the richest in accessible coals of any in the western district;" yet, in consequence of the delays and uncertainties of river transportation, this is the only mine in the county from which shipments are made.

The channel by which this coal finds a market is the Ohio river to Cairo, and the Mississippi thence South; but the great revolution in coal transportation in the western district wrought by the completion of the Chesapeake, Ohio and South-western Railroad, and the purchase of the Henderson and Nashville Railroad by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, enables the owners of coal mines along the southern border of the western field to supply, not only the interior market, but the demands of the "coast" trade with an excellent coal, much more speedily and at but little greater cost, than the delays and uncertainties of river transportation permitted to the miners of the lower Tradewater.

To overcome this disadvantage, and to enable them to put the products of their mines on an equal footing with that of their rivals, the owners of DeKoven mines determined to build a railroad that would not only carry their coal into the markets of the interior, but enable them to bring it and the iron ores of the

lower Cumberland into immediate contact. This purpose materalized in the building of the Ohio Valley Railway.

Provided with a very defective charter, and with almost no assistance from the communities affected, Dr. Kelsey, the President of the proposed road, broke dirt at Henderson in October, 1885, and pushed the work with such energy as to complete twenty-four miles to Morganfield against the 1st of May, and thirty-nine miles to DeKoven against the 1st of August following. Since then the road has been completed, and trains are now running to Black's Ford on Tradewater, fourteen miles beyond DeKoven, and the grading is completed to Marion, in Crittenden county, thirteen miles further. The work of track-laying has been retarded by high water and by the delay in obtaining an act of Congress permitting the building of a bridge across Tradewater river. The President has recently signed the act, and so soon as the waters recede the work will be vigorously prosecuted. From Marion the road will be pushed south, most likely by way of Princeton. A short distance beyond Princeton it will penetrate the iron beds of Trigg county. The proprietors of the DeKoven mines are preparing to erect furnaces and begin the manufacture of iron at that point.

Besides the main stem, the Ohio Valley Railway Company have constructed a branch road of six miles in length, from Morganfield to Uniontown, where it is proposed to connect by transfer boats and a connecting railroad with the Northern roads at Mt. Vernon, Indiana. Another branch of one and three-fourths miles in length has been built from DeKoven to the Ohio river. Starting at Henderson, a city of perhaps 12,000 inhabitants, this road traverses, throughout Henderson and Union counties, a region of unsurpassed beauty and fertility, inhabited by an industrious, intelligent and hospitable people.

It passes Corydon, a prosperous village in Henderson county, well supplied with churches, schools, and tobacco stemmeries ; Waverly, in Union, lying in the midst of a most productive country; St. Vincent's Female Academy in Union, one of the oldest, best improved, and most successful educational institutions in the State; Morganfield, the capital of Union county,

beautifully situated on the watershed of Tradewater river and Lost creek, and adorned with one of the handsomest and best constructed court-houses in the State, a very superior jail, some fine churches, private residences and business houses. The country around this town is as rich in soil and as charming in natural beauty as the heart of man could desire. Here the Uniontown Branch starts. This town, situated on the Ohio river, is already an important shipping point, and is destined to increase its business rapidly. Here are stemmeries, mills, warehouses, and near by a flourishing coal mine.

DeKoven is the next important place on the road. Here coal is mined at the rate of from 10,000 to 13,000 bushels (400 or 500 tons) per day, with capacity for indefinite increase. Here the machine shops of the company are located, and iron works are to be speedily erected. A switch or branch, running to the Ohio river, with an "incline" to the water's edge, affords easy access to the vast corn product of the Ohio and Wabash rivers, which will be floated down in barges and handled by means of an elevator. A new town, called Sturgis, has been laid off about four miles south-east from DeKoven, which is rapidly being built up, and is destined to become an important shipping point.

About three miles from DeKoven, and within a mile and a quarter of the road, is the thriving town of Caseyville, on the Ohio river. This town does an immense retail business, and supports an extensive flouring mill and two or more tobacco stemmeries.

Near this place, and within half a mile of the road, is the town of Commercial Point, on Tradewater river, where there is a fine flouring mill, saw-mill, broom factory, tobacco stemmery, and several dry goods and grocery stores. And just across the railroad from this town is a flourishing tile factory and two mines of excellent coal, all in successful operation. At Black's Ford, where the road crosses Tradewater, a fine iron bridge with a "draw" is being built.

The county of Crittenden, lying between the Tradewater and Cumberland rivers, and fronting on the Ohio, will, when this railroad is completed, enjoy all the facilities of travel and

transportation that a people could desire. Nor will the projection of the road to Princeton be of less value to Caldwell county. Princeton, and indeed the entire county, depends now upon the Chesapeake, Ohio and South-western Railroad for transportation. But the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company are building a road from Clarksville, Tennessee, to Princeton, which will connect that point with the Louisville and Nashville system; and the completion of the Ohio Valley Railroad to Princeton will afford another outlet to the north, whilst the extension of that road to its southern terminus will give further facilities for freight and travel in that direction.

A quick and certain result of these enterprises will be the rapid growth of Princeton and its increased importance as a railroad center and point of distribution.

The road is being constructed in the most substantial manner, laid with first-class steel rails, provided with the usual sidings, tasteful passenger depots, and commodious freighthouses, and equipped with fine locomotives, good freight cars and elegant passenger coaches.

The original capital with which the road was built was furnished by Captain S. S. Brown, the millionaire coal king of Pittsburg, Pa.; but the conception, inauguration and successful prosecution of the work is due almost solely to the sagacious foresight and indefatigable energy of Dr. P.. G. Kelsey, its President.

Henderson and Union are the two largest corn-producing counties in the State, and both rank high in tobacco and wheat. Large numbers of cattle and hogs are raised in Union, whilst a much greater number of both kinds of stock are annually bought in the surrounding counties by Union county farmers and fattened and sent to market.

It is plain to be seen that a railroad passing through such a territory will confer wonderful benefits on its people, but the full extent of these benefits can scarcely be conjectured.

Starting from the southern approach of the Henderson bridge, connecting with the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, and the system of roads entering Evansville, Indiana, from the north, running for forty miles almost parallel with and only a few miles from the Ohio river, passing within