Its streets, shaded by the elms planted by the pioneers, show traces of
those early days; one of the old inns, with its swinging sign still
stands; no roar of traffic disturbs its Sabbath stillness. Just to the
east of it rises Mount Logan, named for the Indian chieftain known to
every train-service, and there is a legend that, standing on the summit
of that hill, the day before his death, he cast a spell over the
surrounding country, in order that the peace of his grave might never be
disturbed. However that may be, certain it is that a dreamy influence
pervades the atmosphere and gives to the town an air of leisure and calm
deliberateness which nothing can dispel.
It had been founded more than a century before, when the country for a
hundred miles around was an unbroken forest, by a little band of
pioneers who, acquiring title to unnumbered acres by virtue of their
service in the Revolution, pushed their way over the mountains from
Virginia. Some of them brought their slaves with them, only to free them
when they reached their new home. Other families from Virginia joined
the little settlement and lent their hands to the battle with the
wilderness. That southern flavour had never been lost, nor the southern
deliberateness and dislike of innovation, nor the southern preference
for agriculture rather than for manufacture.
By mere chance of geographical position, Wadsworth lies half way between
Parkersburg, a hundred miles away to the east, and Cincinnati, a hundred
miles away to the south-west; so, when the great P. & O. railway,
looking for new fields to conquer, purchased the local line which
connected those two cities, and which was fast degenerating into a
“streak of rust,” it saw that Wadsworth must be the centre of the new
division, since it was the most economical place from which to handle
the business of the division and at which to maintain the division
shops. All this, however, it carefully concealed from public view, but,
expressing a supreme indifference as to whether the shops were placed at
Wadsworth or somewhere else, offered to bring them there for a bonus of
a hundred thousand dollars. After long delay and hesitation, the town
was bonded for that amount, and the shops were formally established at
the spot where they must, of necessity, have been placed.
Here also were the division offices, from which the business of the
division was handled. They were upon the second floor of the dingy depot
building which has been described more particularly in “The Young Train
Dispatcher,” and need not be dwelt upon here, except to observe that the
passing years had added to its dinginess and disreputable appearance.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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