Notwithstanding the great depression of the times--since the war--as far, at least, as Harper's Ferry is concerned--a good deal of enterprise has been exhibited by many of the old citizens of the place. In July, 1867, Mr. A. H. Herr, an extensive manufacturer and the owner of the Island of Virginius, of whom mention has been made in this book several times heretofore, sold his interest at Harper's Ferry to the firm of Child & McCreight, of Springfield, Ohio,--both now deceased. This property is romantically situated on the Shenandoah which bounds it on the south. On the north and east it is bounded by the canal, constructed to facilitate the navigation of the Shenandoah, and on the west by a waste way of the canal communicating with the river. The island contains thirteen acres on which were, before the war, twenty-eight neat dwellings, one flour mill, one cotton factory, one carriage factory, one saw mill, a machine shop and a foundry. It will be remembered that in 1861, shortly after the skirmish at Bolivar, a party of confederates visited the town and destroyed the flour mill. From that time there was no business conducted on the island until the sale of that property to the above mentioned firm. These gentlemen, having availed themselves of the talents of Mr. William F. Cochran, then so well known for his thorough knowledge--theoretical and practical--of machinery, immediately commenced fitting up the cotton factory for a flour mill. A large force of men was kept in employment for fifteen months, preparing the building and putting up the machinery, under the direction of Mr. Cochran. The works were of the most approved description, set in motion by four turbine wheels, the power being that of three hundred horses. There were ten run of buhrs, which turned out five hundred barrels of flour daily and, in the whole, it was said by adepts in that business, to be a marvel of ingenuity, which greatly added to the previous and well-established fame of Mr. Cochran. That gentleman, after varied fortunes and many vicissitudes, lost his life in a railroad accident in Michigan, in January, 1889. He was a native of Scotland and he served some years in the British navy. Messrs. Child & McCreight, the new proprietors of this desirable property, soon won for themselves golden opinions among the people of the place for their courteous demeanor, and the success which at first attended them, gave unalloyed pleasure to all with whom they came in contact. They associated with them as a partner, Mr. Solomon V. Yantis, an old resident and long a merchant of Harper's Ferry, where his character was of the very best as a business man and a good citizen generally. Of the twenty-eight dwellings on the island nearly all were put in repair and the work performed on them, as well as on the new flour mill, gave employment to many who otherwise must have suffered from extreme destitution. Many other improvements have been