Evening Star Newspaper, May 15, 1921, Page 74

P Front Royal Is One of the Progressiv HE Sunday Star Man Pays aV Interesting Story—Probable First Settlement of the Town ,and How Name Was | :s Add to the Town's Population—The Academy. | County and City Officials—Civil War Battles in the Neighborhood—Churches and of the Towns in Vicinity of Washington. | ASHINGTON has neighbor cities about which Wash-| ington people need in- struction if they would know the country the pitai. One of these neighbor cities is Front 3 It was a western frontier) settiement of hardy Americans before | the colonics challenged Brit drew their sword—or rather. shoul-| dered their flintlock and took down| their powder horn from its peg on the: cabin wall—in s | 1oy n and; ort of the doc-! trine of self-government and equal} rights for men. Front Royal was in- corporated as a town before the capi-| tal of the United States was moved] from Philadelphia to Washington. | 1t led a calm and peaceful life for| wore than half a century. Wagon, trains bound between cast and west rumbled slowly through those Blue| Ridge passes named Manasses gap | end Chester and through the main street of Front Royal. Taverns, stores and homes were built in the town and mills were sei to work on, two rushing creeks and a fine river. Une of those streams bearing the joy- ous name Happy - creck comes down ! from the mountains &nd passes through the town Another stream, less poetic in _its name, is creek, which flows far v and within a mile of the west edge of the town rolis the South Fork of the beautiful Shenandoah. Through both those passes, Manas- eas gap and Chester gap, probably led Indian trails, and very likely the trails the Indians fo!lowed had been made by herds of buffalo. Adventurous | white men going west followed the; Indian trails. Travel and traffic grew 1s the years passed and the old trail through Chester gap began to look like a rough road. Some pioneer set up his cabin there. Probably his name was Chester and men began to speak of that pass through the moun- tains as Chester gap That is the story of many of the other passes through the Biue Ridge, as well as through other ridges. In the Blue Ridge, perhaps. you have iraveled through Snicker's gap. Ash- by's gap. Thornton's gap and some of the others. Where that first cabin was set up in Chester gap another came to be built. A man set up his home further down the road than where it passes through the gap. It was by the side of the beautiful creek which had washed that pass down the west slope of the Blue Ridge before the buffalo picked it as an easy road. That pioneer chose his home site where rolling fields were all about him and where a splendid river passed within a mile. West-bound trafic continued to in- crease and a few other men built their cabins by the side of the road which followed Happy creek down the ridge. There was probably a! tavern, perhaps several of them, where homeseekers, bound for the ‘henandoah valley and the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, where wag- PROMINENT CITIZENS OF FRONT ROYA —_—nnm— level and which is five miles east|along the penins Dicky's | and James. oners and freighters and where travelers for adventure could rest,| by south from Front Royal eat and drink. * % x % HE establishment of towns was a popular formr of speculation in | the eighteenth and early nineteenth | centuries. Men speculated in the pur- chase of a tract of land and its sub- | division into lots before they had county, of the Blue Ridge. Through that pass which passes through Manassas gap. The railroad through that gap runs a mile long spur into Front Royal. and all trains between Wa and Harrisonburg. by way of Manas- sas city and Strasburg. back into lished by and Shenaadeah counties, is twenty | Winchester. b miles long and twelve miles wide. |son drove Ge The soil is productive and the region | hilly. with a number of mountainsiace that rise high above the hundreds of Perhaps the tallest of |own arm these mountains is High Knob. whose | summit is 2,365 feet above the sea|way. or being bl rounded hills. | This ridge has an average height (.r‘ wild and magnificent vales and val leys of thal mountain chain. Thesc men would now and then come out of the hills to deal in the s ai Front Royal. Population of the ntry roundabout increased. There were two currents of settlers. One moved up, or southward. along the Shenandoah valley from Pennsyl- vania and western Maryland. and th other moved from eastern or “elder Virginia across the Blue Ridge to! the newer. ‘fruittul and cheap lands| in the west, and “west” then meant| to large numbers of Americans tae! great country—wild mountains and fair valleys—which lay beyond Lne| plain of eastern Virginia und on this | side of the Alleghenies. i * K X ¥ ! AS Population grew the organiza- HE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON., D. C. e Towns in Vicinity of Washingt Thriving Virginia Community and Writes 1sit to Selected—-“]orth-while Industv Busin ss Houses—First Story of a Series MAY 15, 1921—PART 4. tion of a new county was called for, and in 1836 one was estabiished | by the Virginia legislature on'the pe- ! tition of numerous Americans whose | homes were in the Blue Ridge and valley of Virzinia. To that mnew | county was given the nume Warren. | Dr. Henry Gannett's bulletin on-place | names scts forth that \ourren county Va. was named after n. Joseph | Warren. who was killed .n the) t-n'lle] of Bunker Hill. s verently appropr name not only in \° the etates Kentuck as but algo in: ssouri, New and ¢ in Fauquier and Wort Warren, in. Foston harsor. were named after Gen. Joseph Warren of Bunker Hill. He was a Massachuseits man. born at Roxbury. in 1741. and a_graduate of Harvard in the ciass of 1759, Warren county, Indiana. is named for Gen. Francie Warren: the towns of War- ren. N. H, and R. . were named after Admiral Sir Peter Warren of the Eng- lish navy. In the *50s came that railroad which took the name of Manassas Gap ralil- road, because it used to pass through the west wall of the Blue Ridge at Manassas gap. the lowest pass runs also (oose creek and an old wagon road. The next lowest pass is Chester gap. which is a trifle over, three miles south of Manassas gap. The road through Chester gap is in tersected near *ront Royal by a road ington Front Roval. The Manassas Gap railroad was built to connect with '(m- four years of strife. Armies raced the old Orange and Alexandria rail-ithrough road at Manassas Junction. both of jenvelop, which roads are now part of thelarmies engagement which was a part Southern railway system. Strasburg., ounty, which was estab- aking parts of Frederick Warren Hill is a ridge four miies long having its longer axis nearly north and south. 2,000 and its topmost knob is 2.200. Front Royal's growth was ste: | though not zensational, up to the civil war. As all Americans who read most necessar much opportunity to epeculate. or ! must know, the valley of Virginia vey of their history in order to et atmosphere” - “invest” if you prefer the word, in was one of the cockpits of that war. the stocks of turnpike companies and canal companies. ‘An act of the Jegislature was required to establish a town and in the Maryland and Vir- ginia statutes ay be found record- ing of the establishm of towns, scores of w tablished” within what we neighborhood of Washington Some of these towns were a suc cexs in that a sufficient number of persons bought a lot and erected a home to give the place the appear-, ance of a town. Some of these places Erew into towns we know today and some of the prospered for a while und passed from earth. Some of the establivhed” by act of the | Maryiznd and Virginia never became towns in fact, and the gpeculators were o of luck The site for a town by Happy creek on, the road down from Chester gap had | hean proved amd the plan of certain! gentlemen, ancestors of ours. was to buy the holdings of the setilers there and establish town. Very likely the original settle in the place bought a town lot, and perhaps the new town was %0 surveyed as not to require the removal of first settlers’ homes. Thit s conjecture At any rate there was estabiished at that point in 1788 a town calied Front Royval It was laid out on a tract of fifty acres of land belonging to Solomon Vanmeter, James Moore, Robert Hulnes. Willilam Cunningham, Peter Halley, John mith, Allen Wiley, Original Wroe. George Chick. William Morris and Hen Trout The tru: tees of the new town were Thomas Allen. Robert Russell, William Head- ) Willlam Je ngs, John Hickman, Thomax Han and Thomas Buck. What the name of the first settlement vas scems not to be of record. 1t towns may b gone by the name of Ches ter € or it may have been called Happy Creek. Why the new ce was called Front Royal is another n® which seems not to bLe known. Tt would seem reasonable to believe at answers to the guestion “Why Froat Royal? have been invented. In Dr. Gannett's geological survey Vulletin on place names Ix this: “First known as Royal Oak. named for an immense tree growing on the com- ™mon. ¥ront RNoyal originated from the circumstances of a colonel who, Lecoming confused in his commands. ardered his regiment to “front the Toyal ” “Fhere are variations and modifica- tions of this “explznation” given by ol and well read citizens of Front Toyyl, but t never tell the story with assuranc and often say, “I'm st telling it 10 vou for what it may te worth, which. of course, means that they do not care about giving it thetr awn indorsement Men. spurning life in towns and considering those things which we The valley had its own campaigns |town. and it had campaigns which were re- if o railroad is ever to be credited with winning a battle this old rail- | road must be credited with having won the first battle of Bull Run. 1t | brought the army of Gen. Joseph I Johnston into union with Beauregard tarmy along Bull Run before the fed- eral authorities at Washington, the Federals in the valley of Virginia or McDowe!l's army in its camps {around Centervilie. about four mil. frem Bull Run, knew that this june- tion had been cffected. The old rail- romd brought in from' the vailey Kirby Smith's brigade (the last of John- ston’'s troops to reach the fields of Manassas) and detrained it at what now the station Wellington. an down an cld road through the woods it came upon the road that runs from Manassas town to Sudley Springs by way of Stone House 'l ed the Union rout. * % & Lall the comforts of clviligation were sericr. set up their homes on the lofty tops and rugged sides of moun- tains in the Blue Rldge and ln. the FRONT ROYAL COURTHOUSE. from Broadway. treasure their historic associatiol A new pastor support. | but a town cannot other | Money is made and bi 1 had it's heavy | ent activit Rockingham county. has come to the Baptists. v. Mr Taber and he has already won recognition in the town asa capa- spirted speaker with some up-to-date ideas a8 to how to interest Christians in straight living. ix a handsome old Church of which the Rev. r'son is minister and he is one of the reverend gentlemen of long service Methodists received a pastor new He is the Rev. Snyder from Strasburg. and he suc- s paid by pres- s and not by past glories. In Henry Howe's History of Virginia might | published at Charleston, SouTh Car- 50 be called a part of the battle of | olina, in 1845, is this - which Stonewall Jack- | Banks out of the val- | built and is surrounded by beautiful 4 Fremont's men- | attack from ¢ transferred his | church, of Mec-|zbout . | About seven miles south of this vil- copper mine | cently been j with “spirit_and promise ¥ of Virginia, fo of Richmond the west, and auick right flank terian, one Bantist and one Episcor mercantile have recently |to Front Rov is conducted is a Catholic Church, the priest Father McVeer. being the Rev. comes over from Winchester. was ordained at the time of of Cardinal late cardinal enter- most affectionate regard for each other nd magnificence it Tt extends about The spary concretions of the principal the ordination +and he and the innumerable form a complete laby The population of Front Royal with- roorate limits is about 1,340, greatly sout- limits that there 4.000 people is under way is no Lutheran Church the Lutherans, quite a number of them.|the state. 1t is the industry of ra attaching themselves to the|ing apples. Warren and its adjoin- Presbyterians. Bight_doctors of me: Front Royal Front Roval, but the town grown the cornora are more than | there are extend the corporate % no nurpos: but they get most of their practice in other towns. are Dr. D. M. Kipps. Dr. L. F. Hans- wing among corporate lim- s now the close- ront Royal. its agree with wh e Cooke, Dr. Grubbs, Dr. Monts, Cline and Dr. Roy. postmaster S. Byrne Downing, 15 served through both of President | Wilson's administrations and perhaps The clerks in the post ers, Charles TTHE government of the town is by a mayor and council, the mayor being B. J. Hillidge and the council- men Omar Maddox, E. | he has hopes. office are the Haley bro Lake and Black tion agent for the Southern railway A. M. Whitesell a|agent for the Norfolk and Western is L. D. Purdum. and the station Hillidge succeeded W. Rappahannock years a resident Royal, mayor for two terms and still a Jjustice of department been on the job for many vears, and both by reason of the moves along hap- the sheriff. everything bas: of Massanutien mount: High Knob. Frent Royal has it water and sew- ain to the | There is running water in all water can be iands contal nineteen fine fast flowing springs, conducted the wi springs 1o a re: 1e hills_and t and though clear the town | authorities are not satisfied and are in a $20,000 filtra- ervoir far up in called the pen Front Royal and the sons The north slope of Dickey's Hill [ters of Wa slants down to the southern side of |heroic part in the wir b Front Royal and many of the homes |states, but in this story it is hop of the town are built on it. | tell not only what Front Roy d: In writing these old Virginia towns it = to take a qu tion plant. tric light plant, enterprise works well, do not complain of el es, the streets are well H ®oon as the pavement is laid on busy fs roing to set un ! is municipal The citizens tric light charg- lighted and new concrete Main street atiie lights that make that sireet a dazzling white There is a volunteer fire com- up of entausi but fires are reel is drawn by and the old hand pump used before jthe insiallation of the present water system is out of date, for the gravity cam bighoc than the tallest building in the town. val has a $35,000 high school building which is probably as modern and well equipped as any in the state of Virginia, a state which justly taken prida in its ctem of public {nstruction. 600 Front putlic school. i00ls is Hugh D. Jated to the farther-flung campaigns | war e of morthern Virginia. The Manas. | mied 0 LM Lhe O Cocial 'a sas Gap railroad was one of the stra- | coenomic 4 tegic steam lines of the war, and | Soq wmen who had been th leaders in the crippled or impoverished. Many of the d on memories, for they held memories that were dear There was so much “retrospect” ature” in the life of the town that numbers of young peopl their fortune Notwithatand ng Confederate reunions, of monuments ors over the pany made survivors 1 and so little “ the strewing of flow- superintendent dighter of | Kenerations be, | Main, which runs east and west, and nded and new in- dustries came. dassah Dun Leach. Miss Netti erzon and the I within the corporate limits, are Shipe The north-and-south | to be included in the Kroat Royal in- | T dustries is the Morgan duck ranch, lins, John W. Morgan, manager. This is and one of the biggeat things of its kind |nu The princ tor on the place which takes (and |! g establishments aver, Miss Hen- | yo'1 do not know ma to think and Boundary. | Strickler street. Cloud, Trout, Manor Thera is a|avenue, Royal avenue, Lee street and After Chester, though ere not exhausted, the bout fourteen |town authoritics began numbering had _been | streets, and so they run from 1st to spiritual comfort of tho attended to, fine Protestant Episcopal church, the rector of which is the Rev. R. Wyn- instead of in terms of indusiry. siders look on all histo here it fell | Royalists i upen the Union right flank and start- | Cheater strest. great names dom Browne. Presbyter'ans ministered to by the Dav Webster, but he ‘was rec ra Washington commanders ople see Cornwallis in as dim light as you do. the educated. people in historie towns.ed by the Rev. Mr. Shannon, who came nily succeed- this dispute, in Front Royal, Washington. Anong the homes which considere? piaces of the fine littie Warthen. on the south side | west of Front Royul It has been of Maln street between the post office | worked and its reports show profita- of ble shipments of ore to the Baltimore | JHi00, Copper Sinclting and Rolling _Com- | goaritl, G pany. It is called the Gooney Manor | feizer Brother. ity are those courthouse: ile Adams, s ‘on the edge of town of A. G. Weaver, | tired, who livi the home of W. C National Bank, on Royal avenue; the cashier of Bank of Warren, the home of E. H olothing merchant, merchant in the city. place stands high above the roofs of Front Royal houses on a hill, named Hoffman Heighte. other splendid houses in and close and hundreds that of happiness a: the oldest -His beautiful There are many by Front Royal are just as full though they were fine. Front Royal ha two banks eldest of the new ren Sentinel. before the civil war.as the Valley G, nterrupted dld a number of newspanars. but vas re-cstahlisied twWo newspapers, two hotels. the Warren And it is running vet and comes out every week, with all county news that's fit'to print. The editor and owner is Col. spell it Mill- The Star man and other Virgi had a folly mood talk in the ‘cote- bouse yhard.” The other paper comes Samuel Rolfe nd he and out semi-weekiy. It is the Front Royal Record. and the editor and proprietor is E. E. Keister. It is an enterprising newspaper, and The Star | man, after setting up his camera in | the ‘middle of the Main strect and | | holding up .trafic. had no time to| put a plate in it before a pleasant | and pretty voung lady came up to| know what it was all about, saying that she wanted to know becaus she was working on the Front Royal | Record. The banks are two, the Bank of Warren and_the Front Roval Na-| tienal. E. H. Jackson s president and S. West cashier of the former, fand A L. Warthen. president and {George W. Forsythe cashier of the {latter. In the line of hotels there are two—the Strickler House. run by W. G. Strickler, and the Afton Inn. run by R. W. Payne. The manufacturing industries of the {town are numerous and important. A, silk factory is there. weaving soft and | beautiful fabrics. The raw silk comes | {by train. The silk mill has been in | lovbrnlmn five or six vears and em- {plovs about one hundeed peopie. and {many girls find there conzenial and| jwell paving work. It is called the Royal Silk Mill, and the general man-| ager is Edward Hoehle | ok ok % HE lime kilns of the Riverton! Lime Company, W. E. Carson president; turn out by the carload the stuff that keeps land young. The {flour mills of W. M. Prociq Son have a capacity of 130 barrels of flour a day and the Shenundoah Val- {ley Milling Co s putting 2 y Milling Company is putiing up a plant to cost $150,000, which will ha & capacity of 500 barrels a day. This company is also developing # power | plant in the Shenandoah for furnish-, ing power to various industries. If| | The Star.man remembers the infor-| | mation given him, it is to be a hydro- | electric plant. One of the big industri Royal is the Locust 1 ! ! { | i | Company. | iHillidge. present mayor of Front Royal, president of the company. Stossel & Son run one of the large “handle factories” of the south, mak- | ing ax helves. hatchet and hoe han- dles, croquet mallets and mallets of other kinds. Part of the work of this plant is turning police clubs. the “billies” which you sce police twirl- | jer way: | wood, called lignum vitac, or “living stone, the carload and goes forth in the form of poiished clubs. | The barrel factory of J. L. Borden. Inc., employs fifty people and turns out apple barrels by the thousands, {and here is a good place to write about one of the important industries of Warren county and that part of ing county of Rappahannock are great orchard counties. The apples from the counties are sold all over the eastern United States and in Europe. The crops of Warren and Rappahannock pass to the outer world through Front Do i | Royal. Of course. you probably know that apple growing has become a vast industry in Virginia on the west slope of the Blue Ridge and the east slope of the Alleghenies, and that Warren and Rappahannock are but two of the great apple-growing counties. Be- cause of the late freeze very little fruit will be produced this year. Front Royal has one of the larger vinegar and cider making plants in the state |and the Old Virginia Orchard Com- is | pany puts up preserves, jams and jel- TUnited States. in the world. There is one incuba- | hatches) 17,500 eggs at each “setting.” | The ducks raised there. though the North Fork, the South Fork and the & There is debate and disagreement |Shenandoah are near, and creeks fo in Front Royal as to which avenue has the finest and handsomest home: on It, and which of the streets and | near the iater except during the avenues is the most aristocrati if scttled at all, must be in | ren ‘tounty’s industries. Copper ores | in many places. have very little swim- [ ming. They are not allowed to go but | breeding season. Coy'per mining is another of War- | have been found in many parts of that | | county and many years ago a mine was located about four miles south- Copper Company, and iis oflicers are |Hugh E. Naylor of Front Roval. president; Lewis F. Cooper of Win- ahester, vice president: Samuel of Front Royal, treasurer; Harry R. Kern and Col. §. Gardner Waller, attorneys, and Col. S. R. Millar, N. 8. Waller, H. C. Sheetz, Joshua S. West. and A.'J. Sager, directors. * x ¥ ¥ HE United States remount station is two and a half miles southeast of Front Royal on 5,000 acres of land. A great work is being done to im- prove the light American horse, So {that he will be better adapted for, general farm work, and useful as a {war horse sgould the nation need him. It is likely that an aviation landing station will be established on the lands of Col. Millar, near Front Royal, and among other things in prospect is the erection of a new Masonic Temple on a large site between. the Bank of MONUMENT, CONFEDERATE Randolph-Macon September, made possible by of Front|store of the Warren Drug Company h perhaps most of Front Royal now The thing wh |which makes insulating pins and |teres ships them all over the worid. B. J.|is the plan of having the ¢ between the Atlanti !eific 0 which employs about forty men. | Chester gap and pass throuzh Front of Warren county at work on this proposal and the prospects of succ: In the Courthe and the 1'a- was due to who planned establishment a distinct advance sse Square is a Con- to commemo patriotism ing, which they sometimes use in oth- | county Who served The hard. tough tropical |Confederate is brought to Kront Royal by |lived and to those those who gave all.” Englishy Richard containing rren county | Markwood soldiers and and mathematics; W The battles are: Front Royal, Chickamany, Sharpsburz Seven Pines, G. Winton, A. B.. Spanish and F Fair Oaks, Murfrees- | Port Repub- | Hansbrough Kennesaw Malvern Hill, Vicksburz. Nashville and 1nd Miss Susie ganizations na 23d Virginia Washington nd Harold Brgn 49th Virginia Elmer Howard Catlin, ferson Humbird Duffey i2th Virginia Alivesw Mob. Moshy's 430 Proctor Given, Willlam Ralph Hopkins. Leonard Rice Ingham, Hunt- er Wellington Madison, Mitchell, Edmund Blanchard Ormsby Charles Palmer Pritchard, George Al Battalion, Virginia Edwin King Chew's Virginia 39th Battalion, Virgini Missouri Infantry and 2d Missouri In- Carrick Arnold Starbuck, Frank Wine- park Urmey and Stewart Edward Wright. training is given at Ran- dolph-Macon, and the cadet battallon a soldieriy ground and The officers are: W. J. Miller. 8. F. E. R.'Watt, captains: R Hopking. major; H. Murrill and G Jordan. lieutenant q Carmichacl, color h-Macon sys Randolph-Macon Randolph- ter Smith. Randolph- president, D. R. Andérson Randolph- Wild Horse Is Gone. 5 wild horse is extinct in Amer- Canyon of the are difficult of access to men and where. | These asses endants of those used as burden by Spanish explorers who, in the seventeenth and perhaps in the six- visited what is now the United States. distributed, been restrict ssing through it of so many hunt- in themselves only in the ilarly difficuit country rank B. Whiting, lies that sold throughout the |Warren wre Judge {judge of the county court: W Near Front Royal, and near enough | ner, commonwealth's clerk of the court ‘i, treasurer, . D. Boyd, commissioner of reve- {rocky and par lof "the Grana canyon region northern Arizona an be traced, the ass came first to be known by man in the deserts | of Arabia and northern Africa. |find a living where the horse and most other animals would dic of hunger and The wild ass is & swift runner He is as keen v wild animal a z learncd that man is his ene is hard to captur mercantile owner. and E on, dry goods W |and millinery, W. C. Weaver, jr.. buy er and general manager; dry goods and groceries, acious animal of scent as any and hard to shoot. Venable ‘drug | prophet, probably 3 Keen sense of sm ‘The wiid ass | wilderness that enuffeth up the wind enophon paid tribute to the speed with the ass can run when he wrote turies ago that only Vint, man- Front Royal Shoe R. Thompson, own Marvin Maddox, Higgin grocer. New York Furniture Compan ager und treasurer ter market, president: | dry goods; h the wild ass and domestic; was brought (o th: dition, but a good deal of conjecture is associated with that belief. A Good Name. admiral told at a dinner a story about an English general. “This general, like many others.” he said, “had his line broken by the Germans, and was accordingly given a title and sent home. “Well, after the general got home he built himself a very fine house in He was showingz an over the house one d: jr.. manager: fore the hors Chil ex-treasurer of Irederick | Ramsey. hardware county, secretary; George H. Bowman | gale and retail fru Shop, W. W. Johnson; groceries and dry goods; C. fleld, confectionery; R. M. Nes cream; J. F. Forsyth & Co. ware; 'C. W. Miller, hardware . feed, flour and Storage Com- Marchi. whole Young Men's Virginia_Ice | pany, W. W. Petttee, ) | Proctor & Sons, flour | doah Produce Company, A. | manager: Boston Bargai Eoyd Supply illing; Shena- . jewelry: George T. Johnston, | Thomas G. s B. B. Beaty, millinery; Corron & Son dry goods. this place of mine Is perfect nly one thing is-lacking can't think of educational Can you help a good name institutions Front Royal and occupies a situation of rare beauty. It is Randolph-Macon Academy. 1t was opened by ihe board ‘The American. thinking of the gencral's war re chuckled sfnd “*Why not call it “The Retreat"q'