Playing: Oraange Blossom Special.

.....This past Saturday Morning, while all the others were still in the house, I decided to take a walk to see if I could make some fall photos. I made several of the trees in the hollow and on the hillside just west of the house. Because of the Civil War, this hill is a part of history. On the hill at the extream right-hand corner of the photo, there is a Confederate gun implacement. At the end of the ridge, there is a trench. These features are some of what is left over from the Battle of Lewisburg. The Confederates dug in after their defeat, but the Federals never attacked. So the men from the South slipped off down through Monroe County.

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.....Perhaps because of the extream dry weather, the colors a very good this year. Even the oaks, instead of being drab, are a nice russet color. The yellow is a sumac tree. I have one of the largest I have seen in my yard. This is a scene from the Eastern Edge of our yard.

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.....To the immediate East of our place is another hollow. In this hollow stood the old Black Elementry School. There was once a large Black community on the ridge east of where we live. They were good neighbors, but they are long gone. Up the hollow from the old school site, there are woods. The following three photos were taken the evening before my Saturday walk. Jonathan, who is more trustworthy as a hunter than probably ninty-five percent of the adults who hunt, wanted to go hunting and I went with him with my camara. While we were seated against the hillside, I made this photo of him. Note: I just received a call from Jonathan and he said that he got his deer with his bow this evening. So, that finishes his bow hunting for the year.

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.....This was the scene in the trees that we were looking at. We were also surveying the leaves on the ground under the trees.

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.....It must be almost Halloween. Someone found this wierd old doll's head lying on the floor of the hollow and stuck in in a tree above the path. I would imagine that this is what is left of some doll that once belonged to a little black girl.

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..........This photo, that I have looked for for a long time, was given to me by Anna Defibaugh. Thank You Anna.

.....I chose the music for this page because the Boom Days of Caldwell were built around the old C&O Railway. In the 1870s, with the coming of the rails, industry began to boom. This is the site of the old Main Line Depot. It stood at an elevation of 1726 feet and was at the Western Entrance of the old Howards Tunnel which was removed before 1900. The only thing left to remind us of the tunnel is the road which is called "Tunnel Hill Road." Fancy ladies and gentlemen embarked and disembarked here coming to and fro from the big cities. Woolens from the Woolens Mill at Second Creek started there way to the market from here. So also did tools and implements from the large foundry that once stood just across the Greenbrier River. Items such as reaper parts were shipped all over the world from here. Horse drawn dreys loaded down with all kinds of goods and driven by sweating and swearing drivers came and went all day. As this was the old busines section of Caldwell, there were also some stores in the area.

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.....Log trains filled with logs from up in the mountains, going to the old St. Lawrence Mill at Ronceverte, came through the tunnel which is now a huge cut. Before these log trains entered the C&O, they came down the old Iron Mountain and Greenbrier Railroad which went out of existace many many years ago. Also, for many years, passenger trains coming from and going to many places sped along these same tracks. During World War II, guards were posted at the cut to defend it from attack. During those years, these tracks were vital. Coal trains still keeps the rails warm night and day. Amtrack comes through up and down about twice a week. Every once in awhile there is a freight or grain train.

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.......Photo provided by Anna Defiaugh.

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....This photo shows part of the area that was the site of some of the industry and was the site where fuel of differnt kinds was offloaded from the cars and stored for shipment though out the Greenbrier Area. These were here when I came to Caldwell, but they are now part of history. Not far from the old North Caldwell Station, shown above, stood the foundry that I mentioned above.
.....The North Caldwell Depot was on the Durbin Line. This branch of the old C&O began at Wickham just a few miles up the Greembrier River from Ronceverte. During its hayday, its trains carried countless logs from the mountainsides of the Upper Greenbrier Valley to the mills at Ronceverte. Before this line was built, logs were floated down the river in the spring where they were caught by a boom that began at Caldwell.

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.....This section of Rt. 60 was once not the main road through Caldwell. The main road was the old James River and Kanawha Turnpike which followed the course of Howards Creek. The old road from this area joined the Pike just across the creek. In the photo, you will see the entrance to Mill Creek Road. Out this road just apiece stood the old Caldwell School. This concludes for now our little little walk. There is not much that happens at Caldwell anymore. Most folks here are unaware of the rich history.

.....In addition to the business that it brought in, the railroad attracted many new families to the area. One group of families came from Carroll County, Virginia. These families included the Webbs, the Spences, the McGradeys, the Nestors, the Daltons, the Hubbards and perhaps a few more. Most of the famlies settled in the Glace Area in Northern Monroe County. That is about seven miles from Caldwell across the mountains. It is about sixteenmiles if you have to go by the road. These families intermarried with the pioneer families that came around the turn of the nineteenth Century or a little before then. In addition to West European families, famlies from Eastern and Southern Europe came to work on the railroad.

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.....This is a view of Caldwell prior to the 1930s. It swows at least two features that are now gone. One is the covered bridge ib the foreground, and the other is the railway tressel over the river and the mouth of Monroe Draft. This was just about at the end of the boom days.

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.............Photo by Okey L. King

.....This is a coal train pulling the grade at the eastern end of Caldwell.

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..........Provided by Annad Defibaugh.

......This is the lower end of Monroe Draft as seen from the railroad many years ago. Draft is a term that was once used for a valley or hollow. Sometimes it may used for a stream. I believe that it was during the winter of 1962-1963 that a unit of the Cofederate Army wintered in this valley. And, if I remembver correctly, one of the Adwell boys died here of typhoid during this time. Many roads like the one in Monroe Draft remained unpaved to the early 1950s. I know that this was true many in Mason County. This photo gives us a small glimpse of what it was like for those traveling to town back then. I appreciate Ann for these photos.

.....Thanks for visiting with us. God bless.