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Gordon,<br>Having lived in Bluefield,VA back in the late 1950's and early 1960's, I recall the area around Thistle Foundry (and Keys Lumber Mill on the opposite side of the tracks) being referred to as Furnace (shown as a distance of 4.12 miles from Bluefield, WV in the employee timetable no. 21, dated Oct. 27, 1963). That would be about right for the Thistle location. I used to walk by that area every day when I attended Dudley Elem. way back when.<br><br>Allen Evans<br>Federal Way, WA<br><br><hr id="stopSpelling">To: nw-mailing-list@nwhs.org<br>Subject: Re: N&W in 1909--Big Stony<br>Date: Wed, 15 Apr 2009 13:52:18 -0400<br>From: nw-mailing-list@nwhs.org<br><br>
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<div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">I don't know the location of the Graham
furnace, but I am attaching two items from Google Books on it. Because the
furnace incorporated a foundry, I thought it might have been on the
location of the present-day Thistle foundry, but I found a item that the Thistle
Foundry and Machine Company was founded in 1899 with that name whereas the
furnace was founded in 1890 and named Graham Iron Furnace. So, the furnace
appears to have been separate from the Thistle foundry. Incidentally, the
same item reveals that the Thistle foundry was founded by J. P. Cameron, who
hailed from Aberdeen, Scotland. Considering that the national flower
of Scotland is the thistle, the unusual name of the foundry is
understandable.</font></div>
<div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font> </div>
<div><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">Gordon Hamilton</font></div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(0, 0, 0); padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 0px;">
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;">----- Original Message ----- </div>
<div style="background: rgb(228, 228, 228) none repeat scroll 0% 0%; -moz-background-clip: -moz-initial; -moz-background-origin: -moz-initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: -moz-initial; font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><b>From:</b>
<a title="nw-mailing-list@nwhs.org" href="mailto:nw-mailing-list@nwhs.org">NW
Mailing List</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><b>To:</b> <a title="nw-mailing-list@nwhs.org" href="mailto:nw-mailing-list@nwhs.org">nw-mailing-list@nwhs.org</a> </div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><b>Sent:</b> Wednesday, April 15, 2009 10:54
AM</div>
<div style="font-family: arial; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; -x-system-font: none;"><b>Subject:</b> Re: N&W in 1909--Big
Stony</div>
<div><br></div><font id="EC_role_document" size="2" color="#000000" face="Arial">
<div>I lived in Bluefield, VA (as Graham became known, of course....) growing
up but never heard of an iron furnace. Where was it located?</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Thanks,</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Dave Phelps</div>
<div> </div>
<div>
<div>In a message dated 4/14/2009 9:13:33 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, <a href="mailto:nw-mailing-list@nwhs.org">nw-mailing-list@nwhs.org</a>
writes:</div>
<blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid blue; padding-left: 5px; margin-left: 5px;"><font style="background-color: transparent;" size="2" color="#000000" face="Arial">
<div><font face="Trebuchet MS">Bluefield Daily Telegraph<br>July 22,
1909</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div align="center"><font size="4">THE GRAHAM DAILY NEWS</font></div>
<div align="center">------</div>
<div align="center"><strong>Iron Furnace May Resume</strong></div>
<div align="left"> The article in yesterday's Telegraph to
the effect that the Big Stony Railroad was nearing completion, was read with
considerable interest by the people of Graham, for it is believed that the
penetrating of the Potts Creek ore beds means the putting into blast of the
Graham iron furnace just as soon as the ore from that region is
available. The furnace property is owned by the Virginia Iron, Coal
and Coke Company, and it is known that the owners have refused to consider
offers to lease or sell the property during the past year, which is taken to
mean that they expect to operate it themselves as soon as the Potts Creek
ore can be gotten. In years past, while the furnace was in blast, the
ore came from the Toledo Lakes and it is said the freight rates were so high
from that point to Graham that it was found impossible to run the furnace at
a profit, hence its operation was abandoned. The Graham furnace when
in full blast employs close to 200 men and its operation means a good deal
to the town in an industrial way.</div>
<div align="left"> </div>
<div align="left">[T<em>he previous posting on "Big Stony" should have
mentioned that additional information on the interesting Potts Valley branch
line can be found in John Joseph's article in the July/August 2002 issue of
The Arrow.</em>]</div>
<div align="center">-----</div>
<div align="center"> </div>
<div align="center"><strong>Crowd Will Go to Roanoke</strong></div>
<div align="left"> Quite a crowd from Graham will take
advantage of the low rate offered by the Norfolk and Western and go to
Roanoke today to see the baseball game and other good things to be seen
there.</div>
<div align="center">------</div>
<div align="left"><font size="6" face="Script">Gordon
Hamilton</font></div><br><br>________________________________________<br>NW-Mailing-List@nwhs.org<br>To
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