way. Such is the march of time.

Nothing very important transpired in Suffolk from 1837 until after the
close of the late war, when she awoke from her slumbering condition;
her watchword being progress. She brushed the dust from her eyes, and
her advancement in every branch of industry can be seen in her rapid
growth. She stands second to no town in a commercial point of view.
Her manufacturing interests are considerable, and being a railroad
centre she must prosper and grow. The disastrous fire which occurred
June 7th, 1885, impeded business for a few months, but our men of
capital at once commenced to repair the breach, and she is again on
the road to fame and wealth. And it is to the Suffolk and Carolina or
Short Line railroad that Suffolk is mostly indebted for her present
prosperous condition. Penetrating as it does a country that is rich
and fertile, she has already felt its influence and it should be
fostered as one of the main arteries to her prosperity.

The Gay Manufacturing Company, before noticed, is perhaps the most
gigantic enterprise ever projected at Suffolk. It has extended its
operations as far South as Chowan county, N. C., and the amount of
capital invested is no doubt the largest investment of its kind in
Virginia, if not in the entire South. It has made large purchases of
land in and around Suffolk and has bought all the timbered lands on
the Suffolk and Carolina Short Line or Grand Trunk railroad, giving
employment to hundreds of hands, at fair wages, that would otherwise
eke out a miserable existence. It also enables the landowners, from
the sale of their timber, to free themselves from debt and otherwise
improve their condition. Under the direction of President W. N. Camp,
it has had erected near Suffolk, on the line of the S. & C. R. R., one
of the most extensive saw mills in Eastern Virginia, and with the aid
of the Atlantic and Danville railroad penetrating the primeval forests
of Southampton, Greensville and other counties of Virginia. Millions
of logs will be brought on that road and manufactured for shipment to
Northern markets. The company consists principally of Baltimoreans,
who will reap a harvest commensurate with the capital invested. And in
many instances it is owing to the mature judgment of President Camp
that the efforts to establish this great enterprise has been crowned
with such signal success. The advantages this company possesses, by
its intimate connections with the S. & C