Stumphouse
I told the Isaqueena story of Stumphouse. Another story has the first house on the mountain built on three stumps on a considerable slope. One corner was on the ground and the other three were built on three stumps as foundation. The story adds that the builder died, leaving his widow the house. She invited a traveler to a meal, but the passerby had imbibed a bit and became quite improper to his host. She threw him out, down the steps to her house. He retaliated in anger, by burning her house.
I have yet to find any location associated with any story of the Stumphouse name's origin.
This mountain is the site of the attempted tunnel that was never finished (I mentioned it earlier).
Some work was done by slaves contracted by their owners, but there was not a large amount of this. The vast majority of the workers were Irish Immigrants. The Irish immigrants largely were Catholic and were already historically set as enemies to Scotch-Irish; Scotts who had been promised Irish land by the King of England and given rights taken from the Irish, but eventually found themselves treated about as badly as the Irish before them. The area was mostly settled by Scotch-Irish and so there was a history of conflict awaiting the new laborers. There were some skirmishes that broke out in the area.
The work was hard. One person held a bit and two took turns left and right hitting it into the rock with a sledge hammer. By the time it went about a foot into the rock, they took it out and threw it to someone who took the bits to be redone by a blacksmith. When they reached three feet, they went to another selected site to 'drill.' The holes were selected to maximize the rock removal for the tunnel when packed with blasting powder (pre-dynamite days). Others loaded rock for mules to carry to exits and loaded to steam engine powered lifts.
The tunnel was started on both sides and shafts were dug down in four places: about 700 feet from the entrances were the outside shafts and about 1100 Ft from each other. The shaft workers blasted down to tunnel depth, with people, mules, equipment, and rock transported via tandem buckets run by steam engines. Then, they worked outward on both faces, heading towards the other tunnel sections. The Eastern entrance met the first shaft, which allowed workers to concentrate on the other shafts.
Material prices escalated during the years of the attempt and money ran low many times. Many large investors and large numbers of smaller investors became disheartened and work stopped several times. By the late 1850's, it was pretty clear that the project would not continue again for a while; then came the secession and war. The project was doomed from then on.
One tunnel side is open as a park. One can take a flashlight and walk back past the first shaft and to where the blasting ceased and look at all the stupid graffiti people have left on this historic landmark. (There is a story that they could hear the driving of the bits from the next shaft on the latter days of work.) Moist air is always entering the tunnel and condensing in the shaft, so it is 'raining' in the shaft every time I've been there.
About a quarter mile from the tunnel is the Isaqueena falls, where Isaqueena allegedly jumped and hid from her pursuers that I mentioned earlier.
I have yet to find any location associated with any story of the Stumphouse name's origin.
This mountain is the site of the attempted tunnel that was never finished (I mentioned it earlier).
Some work was done by slaves contracted by their owners, but there was not a large amount of this. The vast majority of the workers were Irish Immigrants. The Irish immigrants largely were Catholic and were already historically set as enemies to Scotch-Irish; Scotts who had been promised Irish land by the King of England and given rights taken from the Irish, but eventually found themselves treated about as badly as the Irish before them. The area was mostly settled by Scotch-Irish and so there was a history of conflict awaiting the new laborers. There were some skirmishes that broke out in the area.
The work was hard. One person held a bit and two took turns left and right hitting it into the rock with a sledge hammer. By the time it went about a foot into the rock, they took it out and threw it to someone who took the bits to be redone by a blacksmith. When they reached three feet, they went to another selected site to 'drill.' The holes were selected to maximize the rock removal for the tunnel when packed with blasting powder (pre-dynamite days). Others loaded rock for mules to carry to exits and loaded to steam engine powered lifts.
The tunnel was started on both sides and shafts were dug down in four places: about 700 feet from the entrances were the outside shafts and about 1100 Ft from each other. The shaft workers blasted down to tunnel depth, with people, mules, equipment, and rock transported via tandem buckets run by steam engines. Then, they worked outward on both faces, heading towards the other tunnel sections. The Eastern entrance met the first shaft, which allowed workers to concentrate on the other shafts.
Material prices escalated during the years of the attempt and money ran low many times. Many large investors and large numbers of smaller investors became disheartened and work stopped several times. By the late 1850's, it was pretty clear that the project would not continue again for a while; then came the secession and war. The project was doomed from then on.
One tunnel side is open as a park. One can take a flashlight and walk back past the first shaft and to where the blasting ceased and look at all the stupid graffiti people have left on this historic landmark. (There is a story that they could hear the driving of the bits from the next shaft on the latter days of work.) Moist air is always entering the tunnel and condensing in the shaft, so it is 'raining' in the shaft every time I've been there.
About a quarter mile from the tunnel is the Isaqueena falls, where Isaqueena allegedly jumped and hid from her pursuers that I mentioned earlier.
posted by Marion at 6:33 PM
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