Pleasant Trip to Newport

 The Daily Register, November 22, 1904

Enjoyed by the Register Man and His Friends - Thriving Village Destined to Grow and Flourish Steadily for Years.

One of the most thriving little towns of the county and, in fact, in this part of the Ohio valley, is Newport up the Ohio. The location is an admirable one, well adapted to a much larger town than now exists. Its people are a cultured class, enterprising, loyal to home, sociable to a large degree, and most of them descendants of pioneer families. 

While a good many of the homes and buildings are of recent erection, there still remain in the old town the buildings put up by the pioneers of that county, the Greens, Greenwoods and others. Those structures were well built. They are large in size, colonial in architecture, high ceilings, broad verandas and in every way comfortable and attractive to those who are cramped up in the modern house of the present. 

It was our pleasure and privilege on the last Sunday to drive up the beautiful valley from this city to Newport. The country is covered with the rust of autumn, and more burnt and dry by reason of lack of rain since July, except perhaps a light sprinkle. We drove because there was no trolley. There ought to be one built to and through Newport on to Matamoras. We know of no section better adapted to such an improvement, none more deserving of such and none to which a line would be more advantageous. We are told that the delay in building the line is due to the fact that quite a number of large owners between Marietta and Newport refuse to grant the right of way through their farms. They have not yet realized that they are standing in their own way, and it may be some time before they realize this to be true. While it may seem like considerable of a sacrifice to them to give up a strip of land, there is no doubting the statement that an electric line would be a great benefit to them in many ways and would also enhance the value of their farms. But they must live and learn as regards this. We believe with the proper encouragement on the part of land owners, a line would be constructed without delay. If not by one man or set of men by another. There are many people looking about for suitable routes for electric lines, and why not make it possible to have one to Newport?

We have gone our way, accompanied by neighbors, and at 11:30 we find ourselves in the yard of Junius Greenwood, and that gentleman is taking our horses to a good dinner. We approach the house where the estimable wife greets us and the odor of a well cooked country dinner meets the nostrils of a hungry four. The big house, remodeled to an extent, the old oven in the open fire place, the cheese cupboard and other things that we believe we would have left in, were gone, the rooms furnished with the tidy things and comfortable furniture, the old open fire place still there, but instead of the red oak logs the natural gas log has supplanted it and there is no more carrying of the cord wood. There is nothing more needed regarding the dinner to which we were invited to partake than that it was a regular Greenwood dinner. That's all; that's enough. There was nothing lacking.

The afternoon was spent about the village meeting old acquaintances and talking about Newport and her future. She has a bright future and oil is at the bottom of it. Aside from the fine farms that surround the town the oil development is the thing that will make the mare go. Newport is the center of a very important production. Recent developments have made it very attractive and it looks now like a second Belmont field, than which none more is important for a series of years existed, is to be opened just below the town. In fact, it is now up to the operators to define the direction the streak runs and see to what width it exists.

The Berea pool, which has been developing for a year or two, has now taken on new life and on the hill tops and in the valley may be seen the numerous new rigs, the wells drilling, pumping or flowing. The "find" of the field to date is the James Morrison & Co. well on the Friedel, which is about ten days old and still doing in the neighborhood of 300 barrels each twenty-four hours. This lease is attracting the fraternity far and wide, and there is promised during the coming weeks more wells of the like importance, the development of a great oil field and the enriching of many men, providing they get in line. 

The Snakards of this city are considerably interested in this Friedel lease. Joe takes his good fortune with the smile that is always his, whether in luck or disappointment, and we are glad to see the smile of good fortune on his countenance. Jimmie Morrison and D. C. Stewart are also interested. The former is a fixture in Newport. He found a fine wife there and is nicely settled in the village. Jimmie is one of those popular Democrats and is the only one of his political faith to hold office in the township and is the Treasurer. You wouldn't take him for a Democrat to look at him, neither would you take Dave Stewart for a Democrat. Davis is on the gold standard, all right. Look at his teeth for proof.

The people of Newport are to have the Marietta telephone line ere long. There are thirty-five subscribers to the new system and the poles are on the ground, ready to be set, after which the wire will be strung. This addition will give the people the advantage of having phones in their houses. As it is now, they have but the Central station, which is inconvenient at times, to say the least. The new system will hardly be ready for the people to be thankful for it on Thursday, but will certainly come as a welcome adjunct about Christmas time. It can't come too soon for the good people of Newport.

We are glad we went to Newport. We renewed some old acquaintances and saw many things of interest. Newport is a coming town. It will double in size in the next three years. Mark the prediction and if it gets the trolley, as it deserves to, it will just keep on growing. The visit to the town was a diversion from the every day life of Marietta. We shall not soon forget the ride, the oil fields, the scenery and the dinner and the hours spent in Newport and at the Greenwood home.

A. D. A.