19th century Crown Point — Mining infrastructure

The Crown Point Iron Co. was investing in infrastructure.

“The C. P. I. Co. have built an extension to their R. R. for the purpose of hauling ore from an opening at the foot of the mountain south of their present works. The grade is very steep, in some places forty feet in the hundred” the Ironville correspondent reported in the Elizabethtown Post & Gazette on July 31, 1879. “Of course, the cars will be drawn up, one at a time, by a stationary engine. For this purpose, a new boiler of large capacity is being added to their engine house near the old Penfield mine.”

The company also was rebuilding existing infrastructure.

“The Crown Point Iron Company are rebuilding the Bush Hollow and Old Furnace railroad trestles of Virginia pitch pine,” the Crown Point Centre correspondent reported on Aug. 21.

In other 1879 Crown Point news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• “We have three veterans of the War of 1812 in Crown Point — Elisha Davis, Timothy Huestis and John King. … Their ages range from 83 to 94 years, and two of them sign their names without glasses,” the Crown Point Centre correspondent reported in the Elizabethtown Post & Gazette on Dec. 25.
• “Miss Clara Treadway, the gifted Denver, Col. poetess and artist, is spending the winter months with her mother at Crown Point Centre. She is now engaged with pencil and brush on fruit and blossom panels and plaque painting in oil, which she forwards to Denver as fast as as finished,” the Post & Gazette reported on Dec. 25. “Her paintings are in increased demand, and at flattering prices in the Denver market. Dr. Treadway, her brother, is busy with the incisors and molars of Crown Point and vicinity.”
• “We hear onions bid fair to be a slim crop. 1/3 of Bradford’s failed,” the Crown Point Centre correspondent reported on July 3.
• “Editor Billett gave us, as a news item, that kite flying was all the rage at the corners of late,” the Crown Point Centre correspondent reported on July 3. “And his neighbors inform us that Billett, himself, is the highest flyer among the kite owners.”
• “The C. P. I. C. has sold all the forge iron on hand, said to be 1,800 tons, made from four to seven years ago,” the Ironville correspondent reported on Nov. 6.
• “Lake Champlain was several inches lower, by ferryman Wilkinson’s landmark, this fall than ever before known,” the Crown Point Centre correspondent reported on Dec. 11.
• “Clark Little’s new harness shop is well patronized and work and prices suit,” the Crown Point Centre correspondent reported on Dec. 25.

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