Tuesday 29th September 2009 - Another Dark Satanic Mill

          In 1871, The Port Washington Coal Company, saddled with a loss-making mine, producing poor quality coal, sent their Mr Cherry to Glasgow, in Scotland with samples of local iron ore.  This induced a number Glasgow Capitalists (afficionados will know that Glaswegians put the emphsis on the second syllable, which allows you to spit while you're saying it) to part with very large sums of money indeed.

          They set up the Glasgow and Port Washington Iron and Coal Company, sending over three Scots to build quite a large Ironworks.  In the end, they spent three-quarters of a million dollars.  Goodness knows how much that would translate into in today's money.  They built a bridge over the Ohio Canal, and added a spur to the Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and St Louis Railroad (known as the "Panhandle Road").  They started production in 1874.  It was not a success, and sputtered to a stop in 1880.  Local history has it that the failure was due to poor dividends on the vast amount spent, and "mismangement in Scotland".

          In 1873, a local landowner, Robert Hill, laid out the village of Glasgow next to the furnaces. 

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While the furnaces were operating, the village prospered, running to a population of about 450, with two stores.  But when the works failed, the village followed it, although there are still a number of houses there, and it still retains the name.  There was still a school, up to about 1920.

          So this Glasgow, very definitely, was named for Glasgow, Scotland.

          Where one usually identifies land by its township and range number, this land was known as the "Salem Tract", having been leased to Moravian Missionaries working with the Delaware Indians.  An atlas of 1875 even shows a "Glasgow Station" on the main line, where the spur comes off.

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The present township (district) is known as Salem.

 

          Later that night, everyone seemed to be watching poker on the TV.  Why would you do that?  If you wanted poker, you could invite some friends round and do it yourself, in your own front room.  You can't do that with football: even one dad and a small boy would be a risky proposition playing American football in the front room.  It must be to do with the very large amounts of money involved.

          I wanted to compare some of the beers, but it required the help of a grown-up lady.  The young barmaid was prepared to indulge me byheating the glasses , but she was very unwilling to let me have two at the same time.  "This is a family restaurant", she kept saying.  I couldn't imagine what sort of obscenity she thought I could indulge in with two beer glasses (and if you can think of one, I don't want to know).  The grown-up barmaid gave her blessing.  Turns out they're afraid adults would buy beer for minors.