INDUSTRIAL CHANGES.

     For some forty years the furnace, coal and iron companies virtually monopolized the lands in the valley of Raccoon Creek, the choicest sections of the county for grazing and tillage.  Since the furnaces have been abandoned much of the land has been divided into farms and pasture lands - reverted, in a way, to individual settlers - while the coal, oil and natural gas developments have shifted to the western and northern portions of the county.

EAGLE FURNACE, THE PIONEER.

     Eagle Furnace, the pioneer of them all, was built by Messrs, Bentley and Stanley, in 1852, and was located a short distance northwest of the present railroad station of Radcliff's.  It had a daily capacity of fifteen tons, although its actual output was far from that for a number of years.  Its thirty-six foot smoke stake gave it considerable dignity.  As it burned charcoal, the company operating it soon acquired several hundred acres of broken and wooded lands from which to draw the necessary fuel supplies.

VINTON FURNACE.

     The Vinton Furnace was founded in the following year by Messrs. Clark and Culbertson, and was in the same class as the Eagle; its announced capacity was twelve tons daily and the height of its stack forty feet - these two items fixing the status of the iron manufactories of the early days.

HAMDEN FURNACE.

     Hamden Furnace was established in 1854 by L. C. Damarin and others near the village which had been christened by that name about a year previously, and which had before been known as Charleston.  The Hamden Furnace was larger than the other two, but they were all of the variety specified as "open top and hot blast."  Of course, they burned charcoal; it was to be several years before even the Diamond Furnace of Jackson County was to use bituminous coal as fuel.

ZALESKI FURNACE.

     Zaleski Furnace was the only iron manufactory in Vinton County which used stone coal, and this dated from its founding in 1858.  It then had a daily capacity of only ten tons.

LARGE BLOCKS OF FURNACE LANDS.

     As the business of the Eagle, Vinton and Hamden furnaces increased their demands for mineral and wooded lands became larger, so that by the early '80s, when the villages, the coal and iron fields, and the pig iron products of the Raccoon valley were first brought into railway connection with the markets of the country at the opening of that expanding period, a large portion of the townships of Clinton and Vinton were owned, as to their lands, by the companies controlling the furnaces named.
     Writing of that period, a local observer says of Vinton Township: "The land is mostly owned in large parcels, the Eagle Furnace Company, the Lincoln Furnace Company, the Vinton Coal and Iron Company, and several private parties owning large tracts.  The farms are generally larger than usual in this part of the State.  The township contains a great variety of lands.  Some of it is as good agricultural land as exists anywhere, but the surface is very rough and hilly, especially along Raccoon Creek.  Most of the land is well adapted for grazing, and stock-raising could be made profitable.  The township is also rich in minerals, and in the western part coal and iron are found in abundance.  It may be generations hence ere these resources are fully developed, but their presence assures lasting wealth to Vinton Township."
     And of Clinton Township: "Both coal and iron are found in abundance, and considerable quantities are mined and shipped.  Hamden Furnace is situated on the south half of Section 21, and the furnace company own several whole sections of land in the township, besides other large tracts less than a section in size.  Several large bodies of land are also owned by the Eagle Furnace Company and the Vinton Furnace Company."

CINCINNATI AND HOPE FURNACES.

     The Cincinnati Furnace, which was completed in 1853 by Messrs, Westall, Stewart and others, was located miles west of Hamden.  It was later known as Richland Furnace.  It had an original daily capacity of thirteen tons and a smoke stack forty feet in height.
     Hope Furnace, in the southeastern part of Brown Township, was started in 1854 by Colonel Putnam and others. It had a daily capacity of fourteen tons, with a smoke stack thirty-six feet high.

HAMDEN GETS A RAILROAD

     It was in the very midst of the building of the pioneer furnaces in the Raccoon Valley of Vinton County that the Portsmouth branch of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad reached Hamden.  As that was a complicated outgrowth of the old Scioto & Hocking Valley line, the details of that development seem appropriate at this point.

THE SCIOTO & HOCKING VALLEY LINE.

     The Scioto & Hocking Valley Railroad was organized in the year 1849.  The route along which it was to be built was from Portsmouth, Scioto County, to Newark, Licking County, passing through the counties of Scioto, Jackson, Vinton, Hocking, Perry and Licking and just touching the northern corner of Lawrence County.  Work was commenced in 1850, and August 15, 1864, it had reached Jackson Courthouse in Jackson County.  There was not any certainty of its being carried further north than Jackson unless the people could be aroused in Vinton County and to the north of her, and the friends of the road went to work in these counties.
     This action of the people strengthened the enterprise, and it reached Jackson the following year, or 1853.  On its arrival there work ceased for some twelve months so far as laying any rails was concerned, but the grading was completed to Somerset, in Perry County, with the exception of a tunnel at Maxwell and a heavy cut at Union Furnace.  After a twelve months' rest work was again commenced, and the rails were laid to the hamlet of Hamden, and there formed a junction with the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad.
     There was another cessation of work, and an attempt to negotiate the sale of their bond being a failure, and therefore meeting with financial embarrassment, there was a collapse; the roadbed and right of way having been mortgaged, the same was foreclosed and the whole forfeited to the land owners.  The most of the stock was held by persons living along the line of the contemplated road.  This ended that project and a calm settled over the valley.

FINALLY THE BALTIMORE & OHIO.

     The portion of the road completed south and southwest from Hamden Junction to Portsmouth went into the hands of a receiver in the year 1858, who operated it under the order of the court until the road was sold, May 23, 1863.  The purchase of the road entire, with all its equipments, was made by T. J. Stead, Isaac Hartshorn, and Earl P. Mason, of Providence, Rhode Island, as trustees in behalf of the second bondholders, for $411,100, the purchasers agreeing with the holders of the first mortgage bonds to assume their payment.  That year a reorganization of the company was effected under the name of Portsmouth & Newark Railroad Company.  The new company at once took steps to dispose of the property, the reorganization of the company became its purchaser, and it was operated by that company under the name of the Portsmouth Branch of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad.  This continued until January 1, 1883, when the entire road, of which it was a branch, was reorganized under the name of the Cincinnati, Washington & Baltimore Railroad, the property of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company.

THE RISE AND FALL OF ZALESKI

     In 1856 the main line of the old Marietta & Cincinnati line was completed to Athens from Cincinnati by way (through Vinton County) of Vinton, Zaleski (just founded) and Hope.  Not long afterward it reached Marietta.  Daily passenger trains were at once run between Athens and Chillicothe, connecting at the latter point with the Cincinnati trains.
     The rise of Zaleski to the position of the leading village in the county was the result of the development of large tracts of mineral lands at and near it, the growth of the Zaleski Furnace and other industries, and its establishment as a railroad town in the early '60s, when it became a section town on the Marietta & Cincinnati line.  Large shops were built at that time and for many7 years, after the decline of the iron and coal industries, when the main support of the town.
     Previous to September, 1872, nearly two hundred and fifty men were constantly employed in these shops, but on September 9th of that  year all the buildings except the foundry and roundhouse were burned to the ground.  They were rebuilt in the following year, but on such a minor scale that only about one hundred men were employed.  In 1883, when the entire system of the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad was absorbed by the Cincinnati, Washington & Baltimore, or the Baltimore & Ohio Company, the car shops at Zaleski passed to the new owner, and several years afterward were established, with greatly extended facilities, at Chillicothe.
     When the first locomotive snorted and jangled into McArthur on August 17, 1880, Zaleski's death knell was sounded, especially as the town already had been dealt such stunning blows as the collapse of her coal and iron industries and the destruction of her railroad shops.

HISTORY OF ZALESKI

     The main facts in connection with the development of Zaleski are that it was named in honor of Peter F. Zaleski, a native of Poland and a leading member of the Zaleski Mining Company, which, for years after its activities were over, owned large tracts of land in the vicinity of the village.
     The town was laid out on this company's land in 1856, the survey and plat being made by H. B. Robison.  Important additions have since been made by J. F. Heseltine and R. Thompson, and one in 1878 by John F. Sands.  For many years it was simply a mining town in which the houses were owned by the mining company, occupied by their employes, and in which the mercantile business was confined to the same proprietors.  Zaleski, however, has grown gradually, and much of the property having passed into the hands of private citizens she has, in a manner, lost her identity as a mining town.  In 1870, after sixteen years of existence, the town had 690 inhabitants, and in 1880, 1,175.
     The mineral outlook at this place once seemed so good that proprietors looked ahead with hope that Zaleski should soon expand into a flourishing city.  But the ores proved less rich than was anticipated, and the deep wells bored for oil only produced gas and water. 
     The postoffice was established at Zaleski about the time the place was laid out in 1856, and John D. Vanderford was appointed the first postmaster.  The '60s and '70s were the growing years of the village.  The manufactories and railroad shops reached their greatest prosperity during these periods.  In the early '60s the Zaleski flouring mill was built by A. Robinson and supplied a large extent of country for many years; the Roman Catholics and the Methodists also organized churches at that time.  From 1865 to 1869 several newspapers were also essayed - the Zaleski Herald, the Zaleski Echo and the Raccoon Navigator.  The last had the advantage of rather an original name, but that did not tide it over more than a few months of unsettled weather.
     In the early '80s when the Hocking Valley and the Baltimore & Ohio roads of the present had just commenced to develop McArthur and Hamden, at the expense of Zaleski, the latter had a population of about 1,200 and the following stores: Zaleski Company, general store; Hulbert & Robinson, general store; S. McNamara & Company, general store; J. G. Will & Company, general store; E. Wagoner, general store; Thomas Kinney, dry goods; Mrs. John Gillilan, millinery; and J. P. Cauty, hardware.  It had also one hotel, two physicians and two resident ministers.
     The population of Zaleski had declined to 862 in 1890, to 577 in 1900, and 476 in 1910.  It is now a peaceful hamlet, with a good country surrounding it, but is left hopelessly behind by McArthur and Hamden.

MCARTHUR RAILROAD AFAR.

     For nearly thirty years McArthur waited in vain for her rightful railroad.  The county seat commenced to look forward to that "day big with events" when it first became the political and judicial center of Vinton County, and the chapter ending in ultimate realization is one bristling with vexatious delays.  It reads in this wise:
     Although the Scioto & Hocking Valley Railroad was organized in 1849, it was not until 1852 that the counties most interested in building the line concentrated their energies in any practical movement.  But on September 2e of that year the largest railroad meeting ever held in the Hocking Valley came off at Logan.  A grand barbecue was given, and the air fairly shook with railroad eloquence.  It was a memorable day in the history of Hocking County.  The line of route was from Portsmouth, on the Ohio River, running to Jackson in Jackson County, through McArthurstown in Vinton County, Logan in Hocking, to Somerset in Perry County, thence to Newark, Licking County, Ohio, as its terminus.  It was computed that 5,000 people were in attendance that day, coming from Jackson on the south, to Newark on the north.  Perry County turned out the banner delegation, being over a half mile long, accompanied by a band of music.  The people of Logan and surrounding country were awakened at sunrise by a Federal salute.  Up to that time it was the largest railroad meeting ever held in the state, and few since have exceeded it.  It was decided that Perry County should raise $150,000, Hocking County $80,000, and Vinton County $50,000.  The road was completed to the Town of Jackson in 1853 and the grading completed to Somerset, in Perry County, with the exception of a tunnel at Maxwell and a heavy cut at Union Furnace.  Then there was a collapse; the roadbed and right of way having been mortgaged, the same was foreclosed and the whole forfeited to the land owners.  The most of the stock was held by persons living along the line of the contemplated road.  This ended that project and a calm settled over the valley.
     A decade had passed, and peace again settled upon our distressed country, when another railroad project was being whispered int he ears of the people of Hocking County.  This time the connection spoken of was a line to Parkersburg on the Ohio River, to Columbus and Athens, instead of McArthur, the route from Logan.  The route is here described, taken from the Northwestern Ohio paper, the Lima Gazette.  It said: "A project for a new railroad that may ultimately be of immense benefit to the people of Lima, Allen County, is now being discussed.  It is now, and has been for a year past, proposed (and the route has been surveyed) to construct a road from Columbus, southeast through Lancaster, Logan and Athens, to Parkersburg, on the Ohio.  This the Columbus people and those along the line dream of immense importance, because it opens up the extensive coal and iron deposits of Southeastern Ohio, which are now comparatively cut off, and affords a short cut connecting with the Baltimore & Ohio road at Parkersburg.  This road will be built, and there necessarily form other combinations in connection with that, of which we propose to speak."
     Just what other combinations it had in view, or whether it spoke about them, is immaterial to this history.  The route above described is now known as the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railroad, which, in this year 1883, and a few previous ones show a larger net profit per mile than any other road in the state.
     The first public meeting to consider the project was on February 16, 1866, and it was reported a success, and the right of way through Hocking and Athens counties was a free gift to the company with but few exceptions.  Matters went along, all in good shape, during the summer, and on December 19, 1866, $754,000 had been subscribed and the following board of directors elected: Peter Hayden, B. E. Smith, William G. Deshler, W. B. Brooks, William Dennison, Isaac Eberly, George M. Parsons and Theodore Comstock, of Columbus; D. Tallmadge, of Fairfield County; J. C. Garrett, of Hocking County; E. H. Moore and M. M. Greene, of Athens County; and W. P. Cutler, of Washington County.
     It was at that time known as the Hocking Valley Mineral Railroad.  Logan's contribution was $75,000, and the road was completed through Hocking County to the Athen County line, June 29, 1869, reaching Nelsonville, as previously stated, June 30, of that year.  As this was the first railroad to reach Hocking County, it was welcomed with loud rejoicing.

REACHES MCARTHUR.

     The Ohio & West Virginia Railroad was the new name for the Scioto & Hocking Valley Railroad of 1852, with the exception of its terminal point, which was changed from Portsmouth to Gallipolis; the route from Logan through Hocking and Vinton counties was the same.  Work was commenced on the road in the spring of 1879, and the new company followed the old line and grade as far south as Dundas, where it crossed the Marietta & Cincinnati Railroad, and then turned from the direction of Portsmouth toward Gallipolis.  It was finished the following year so that trains ran from Logan to the Ohio River in December, 1880.  The principal owners were residents of Columbus, but they had bonded the road, and eastern persons held the bonds.  The contractors ran the road a short time, then M. M. Greene, of the Hocking Valley road, was elected its president, which meant that the latter road was in control.  This proved true, the road being sold to the Cleveland syndicate in September, 1881, and reorganized under the name of the River Division of the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railroad.  By securing this line the Columbus, Hocking Valley & Toledo Railroad obtained possession of a route from the state capital to the Ohio River at Gallipolis, the main line terminating at Athens.
     The junction of the two roads which thus were constructed through the southern, central and eastern townships of Vinton County was about a quarter of a mile from the Village of Dundas, and three miles south of McArthur.  It was called McArthur Junction.

FIRST YEAR'S SHIPMENTS AT MCARTHUR.

     The completion of the Hocking Valley Railroad had an immediate effect on the prosperity of McArthur and it at once became one of the leading shipping points in the upper districts of the Hanging Rock iron region.  During its first year as a railroad town, 12,912,825 pounds of freight were shipped, mostly coal and iron ore.

RATCLIFF'S AND HAWK'S STATIONS.

     Ratcliff's Station, Vinton Township, on the line running to Gallipolis, was the direct result of the building of the Hocking Valley road.
     Hawk's Station and Minerton, in Wilkesville Township, father to the southeast, are also railroad stations, although several old mills were erected near their sites many years ago and little hamlets grew up around them.

WILKESVILLE.

     As Wilkesville was too far east to be accommodated she is now away from any railroad, and to that extent has little present prospect of growth.
     With the coming of the railroad Vinton County, as a whole, entered a new period of reconstruction, which is still progressing in most satisfactory fashion.