Franklin Repository

We take great pleasure in announcing to the Democrats of the 16th Congressional District, that Wm. M'Lellan, Esq., will be the next Democratic candidate for Congress, and we congratulate them upon having determined to chose such a very excellent gentleman. There is nothing which degrades a political campaign so much in the estimation of Republicans as to have their candidates to office opposed by persons who do not represent any but the worst class of the Democracy. In Mr. M'Lellan the Republican candidate, Hon. John Cessna, will have a courteous, high toned, dignified gentleman for an opponent, and so far as he is concerned we may expect to see the campaign conducted with dignity and fairness. We think that Mr. M'Lellan's nomination will be a thorough guarantee of this.

That he will be nominated we can have no manner of doubt since "Observer's" second communication, in the Valley Spirit of last week. "Observer" with remarkable consistency and penetration, some time ago advocated the nomination of Mr. McLellan as the person to defeat Mr. Cessna, because the latter was a renegade. We frankly admit the force of the reason. Last week he proved the wisdom of his first judgment by telling us that when he read the announcement of Mr. McLellan's name as a candidate to a group of five Republicans they all immediately declared that they would vote for him, and he adds that he was once a Republican himself, and that he would vote for him.

He might perhaps fool some persons with the story, but scarcely Mr. M'Lellan himself, who tried being a Democratic candidate, and relying on the chances of Republican votes for his election, and his success was not encouraging. We might set our evidence against that of "Observer's," in the matter of Republican votes. We also read the announcement, recommending Mr. M'Lellan for Congress, to several groups of Democrats, but we couldn't get them to say that they would support him. They seemed to fear that there was a trick somewhere, and now, that Republicans are volunteering to support him they are doubtless confirmed in their fears. M'Lellan was a renegade you know, and renegades cannot be trusted.

An important railroad contract was concluded at the Girard House, in this city, yesterday, by A. K. M'Clure, counsel for the Central Improvement Company, with the Shenandoah Valley railroad company. The Improvement Company have contracted to construct the Shenandoah Valley railroad, including superstructure, stations, and everything ready for the equipment from the Potomac river, at or near Shepardstown, by way of Charlestown, Front Royal, Luray, Fishersville, Lexington and Buchanan, to the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad, near Salem, a distance of 233 miles, and to complete the same within two years.

The contracting party is made up of strong railroad men, and they will be able to prosecute this important enterprise with the utmost vigor. The Cumberland Valley railroad will be promptly extended from Hagerstown to Shepardstown, a distance of but thirteen miles, and thus connect the Shenandoah Valley road with the Cumberland Valley and Pennsylvania Central. It is the purpose of the managers of the Shenandoah Valley to extend their road as speedily as possible through the Clinch and Halston Valleys, through a country of boundless mineral resources, to Knoxville, and connect with the network of railroads radiating from that point, and also extending their line from the Clinch Valley, through Pond Gap, to connect with the Kentucky system of railroads, thereby making almost an air-line from Memphis to Philadelphia and New York. - Philada. Inquirer, July 22.

Andrew S. Monn, Esq, of Quincy township, last week left at our office several very fine specimens of iron ore taken from the surface of the ground on his land, about three quarters of a mile East of the thriving village of Quincy. Though surface ore, it is of a good quality, one of the pieces being very pure and rich. He informed us that the ore lies upon farming land, a mile or nearly so this side of the mountain, that a space of twenty acres or more is covered with it, and that a well defined ledge of the ore passes through it.

The mere fact that Mr. Monn has valuable veins of iron ore upon his land is perhaps scarcely worthy of note, as there is hardly a farmer along the base of the South mountain from Fayetteville to Quincy and even beyond Quincy, a distance of eight or ten miles, who cannot say the same thing. And the same thing may as truly be said for as many miles along the base of the mountain bordering the Western side of the county. But the presence of these specimens before us suggests the enormous mineral wealth lying dormant in the county, and the superior advantages the great fertility of our lands offer for its successful development, and for building up manufacturing and productive industry, in our midst. We doubt not that the time will come when Franklin county will be among the wealthiest in the State, and will contain and support a population devoted to productive industry such as the most sanguine does not dream of now. Though the past history of our county is not such as to warrant the prediction of rapid development in the future, there are circumstances now working which have not existed heretofore and which cannot fail to operate favorably upon the development of our mineral and material wealth. The high position taken by Franklin county in agriculture gave the impression that she could excel only in agriculture. She has always been among the first in the State for wheat, and naturally her people were devoted to farming. They did not lack enterprise but they were satisfied with the prosperity which their fertile fields brought them, though by no means ignorant of the wealth which lay beneath. But these good old jogtrot days cannot last much longer. The work of the farmer must be subordinated to greater enterprises, though by so doing it will be made more important and more profitable than before. Our farmers will not always ship away their products to feed the workers in other branches of industry when the workers and industry can be placed side by side with themselves. The unusual advantages of Franklin county for furnaces and factories cannot much longer be overlooked. We have water power all over the county running waste which must turn busy wheels. We have a soil of unexampled fertility which can sustain a population of half a million. We have exhaustless beds of iron ore which have been waiting for ages upon us, and have been passed over for places less advantageous. We have railroads now in progress which will connect our county with cheap coal and lumber, and thus place us ahead of all other places in the State in manufacturing advantages. The extension of the Cumberland Valley railroad to the Potomac river gives us access to the Cumberland bituminous coal fields, and the Southern Pennsylvania railroad in progress from the Cumberland Valley, at Marion, to Mercersburg and Loudon, will before long be extended through Fulton county until it reaches the Broadtop coal fields, and thus our county will have opportunities for cheap coal unsurpassed by any. At the same time the Mount Alto Iron company are building a road from their works, in Quincy township, to the Cumberland Valley road about three miles East of Chambersburg, which will open one of the best iron regions in the county, and will reach within three miles of the ore veins mentioned at the beginning of the article.

We predict that famous as Franklin county has been for her fertility and agricultural wealth, it will be as nothing in comparison with the importance of her manufacturing and productive industry in the not distant future, and we can assure our farmers, so contested with their lot, that when that day comes it will more than double the value of their farms, and will bring them better prices for all their commodities than ever before.

The Board of Directors of the Chambersburg School District have published their report for the school year ending June 15, 1870, from which we make the following summary:

The following scholars attended every day of the session:

In Miss Mason's School - Mary M. King, Mary Lippy
In Miss Heck's School - Anide Earley, Doro Elliotte.
In Mr. Hookenberry's School - William Eyster
In Miss Worley's School - Ruth Eyster, Mary M'Kinnie.
In Miss Over's School - Harry Bigley.
In Mrs. Stoner's School - Ida Irwin, Virginia Welsh.
In Miss Wark's School - George Harmony.
In Mr. Gaff's School - Minnie Reynolds, Hellen Reynolds, Bella Lewis, Kate Flinder, Grace Nitterhouse, Idea Kuhn, Lucy Eyster, Maggie Ross Millie Barbour.
In Mr. M'Fadden's School - Baker Workey, Harry Henderson.

Absent on account of sickness:
Kate Henderson, half day; Emma Funk, one and a half days; Jno. Michaels, eight and a half days; Belle Jarrett half day; Rosa Montgomery, two and a half days; Katie Montgomery three days; Lottie Kuhn, eight and a half days; Allison Eyster, ten days; Carrie Snider, seven days; Annie Flinder, one day.

Absent from one to ten days, cause not reported:
Emma Seeleg, Irean Hetrick, Ashby Beisly, Ida Page, W. H. Washington, Lizzie Eckles, Anna Smith, Belle Elliotte, Flora White, Edwin Smiley, Geo. Foreman, Daniel Nead, Jno. Butler, Eva Baer, Carrie White, Lizzie Wickey, Lucy Beaver, Katie Bruner, Katie Finafrock, Maggie Barry, Geo Eby, Edward Henneberfer, Annie Boyd, Annie Burkhart, Eddie Butler, Geo. Brown, Anderson Foreman, Willie Gillespie, Walter Hoke, Harry Mickey, James M'Kinnie, Lewis Oyster, George Gotwald, Eddie Ackerman, Horace Rhoades.