How Ironton Looked To Some Visitors Fifty Years Ago. News Items of That Day Wherein are Names Which Have Come Down to Today.
IR Feb. 11, 1904
Perhaps no one views us with such an impartial eye as the stranger within our gates. Given this fact, those living today can be given no better ideas concerning primitive Ironton than the ones gleaned from letters written by visitors here in 1850, one a reprint from the Marietta Intelligence in Weekly Register of August 1, 1850, the other from the Mt. Vernon True Whig, reprinted in a November issue of the Weekly, the same year.
“The first says:
“It is now one year since town lots were first offered for sale in Ironton. The only building in the limits of the place was a brick farmhouse, and the entire population was less than half a score. The town now contains 300 inhabitants, and buildings are in the progress of construction or under a contract that will accommodate as many more. The demand for building materials is very great.
“There are within the town two sawmills and seven brickyards, but they do not supply the demand. Two or three of the brick kilns are owned by contractors of blocks of buildings and are near the spot where the buildings are to be erected. Two blocks, each 132×50, one of two stories, the other of three stories, go up soon.
“Two foundries will be put up the coming season. One of them will be near the river bank, with a front of 25? feet, three stories high, and a one-story rear addition of 162 feet.
“The _______ will employ about 100 hands.
“The Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, and United Brethren societies have each received a donation of a lot from the company and are making arrangements to build.
“The railroad, to penetrate the iron region, is rapidly advancing to completion and, ere long, will be so far finished as to make Ironton the depot of 6 more furnaces. Jackson county has subscribed $1,000,000, and the Ohio Iron Company $100,000, and it is confidently believed that the road will soon be pushed through to the Scioto Valley.
“We believe Ironton is destined to be one of the most important towns on the river.
“The mineral resources of that region are immense, and the proprietors of the town and of the furnaces are men who have the requisite energy and perseverance to develop them.
A. B. Norton, Esq., is the writer of the second letter
“In June of last year (1849), a stubble field was laid out in town lots, and the first sale of lots was made at auction. **** and now Ironton is more of a place and contains about 700 inhabitants and is still increasing. The site for a town is eligible, the buildings of good style and finish – the people just what they should be – moral, industrious, and enterprising. Fine three stories brick blocks have been built for business purposes.
There are two hotels, the Ironton House and the Kenyon. Beautiful residences appear that would adorn and ornament any of our modern cities. A large rolling mill is about to be erected, and other manufacturers must soon follow. Within 35 miles of this place, there are 34 heavy furnaces and good sites for more of the same sort. Fourteen of these companies are interested in the Ironton Railroad, which now extends ten miles into the backcountry, and these furnaces will make their landings and have their offices at this point.
“The charter of this railroad authorizes its construction till it intersects the Cincinnati and Belpre railroad some 55 miles in the interior. At Jackson, it will connect with the road to the great center, Mt. Vernon. When this is done, Ironton will grow and expand and become a great manufacturing city.
“The county of Lawrence has had the reputation of being one of the poorest counties in the state because it was so small and out of the way of the traveling world, but since 1840, it has increased in the population by about 60 percent.
“And Ironton, a spot entirely unthought of, uncared for, has been touched by the enchanted hand and made SOMEPLACE. And from this magic spot, the Ironton Register, a handsomely executed and well-conducted weekly paper hails, devoted to the interest of that place; its managers, Stimson and Parker, being worthy young men.
This place has improved thus rapidly, too under a temperance restriction, the proprietors having in their deeds bound the purchasers not to sell or give away ardent spirits in all time to come, which may have caused a better class of citizens to locate and better buildings to be erected.”
0 Comments