He had always said that the land would not become valuable in his time, but that it would be a commodious provision for his children some day.

It contained coal, copper, iron and timber, and he said that in the course of time railways would pierce to that region, and then the property would be property in fact as well as in name.

It also produced a wild grape of a promising sort.

He had sent some samples to Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati, to get his judgment upon them, and Mr.
Longworth had said that they would make as good wine as his Catawbas.
The land contained all these riches; and also oil, but my father did not know that, and of course in those early days he would have cared nothing about it if he had known it.

The oil was not discovered until about 1895.