The Societies. The A.F. & A.M. have for many years had a lodge in the village. During the first years of its existence it met in the room over Robinson's store. They have since 1872 occupied more commodious quarters and better furnished rooms on the second floor of the building on the southeast corner of the cross street. The lodge built and owns this building, renting the lower rooms for business purposes. This society embraces in its member ship many of the best men in the town and vicinity. Its flourishing condition is a pointer to the social and moral condition of the community. The Odd Fellows. After the Masons vacated the room over Robinson's store it was occupied by the lodge of Odd Fellows with a considerable membership. This society, a branch of the largest benevolent associations in the United States, so well represented here, shows that its moral teachings and its benevolent designs find sympathy here. The Grand Army of the Republic. The old soldiers were until recently organized in a sort of itinerant Post, which met a part of the time in Lewisville. Lately they have set up for themselves and are prospering. This is the sort of last man's society which must in the nature of things eventually fade out till the last man who comes to the last meeting alone, must break the last bottle of wine in silence, and drink to the memory of his departed comrades. While it lives it's influences are for good and the village is to be congratulated on the new lease of independent life the society has taken on. Resourses. The great staple is tobacco. The soil of the surrounding farms produces tobacco in quality equal to any in the State. South, east, and west it is produced in great quantities and is brought and packed here. This furnishes employment to amny hands a greater part of the year. When packed it enters the market, brings the best prices received for Ohio tobacco, because the soil being of such a nature that it produces a tough fibered leaf that readily takes on birght colors in curing, making a quality of tobacco much sought after at better prices than are obtained for darker leaves of a coarser texture. Stafford is underlaid by the Cumberland vein of coal which varies in thickness from four to five feet, rising in places to more than the latter figure. The coal crops out of the hill side west of the town on Road Fork and is easily mined. East of the village on the Little Muskingum it is below the surface but not at a depth to prevent its profitable mining even here. The quality of this coal is superior to anything in this part of the state if we except perhaps Zanesville coal, which has hardly the hardness to bear shipping, while the Stafford coal is an excellent shipping coal. It has less sulphur than the Captina coal being almost entirely free from the great blocks of that mineral found in all the mines in this stratum. It burns clear, produces abundant heat, leaving a very small quantity of white ash free from incombustible lumps. It is claimed it would make good coak, and for all the purposes for which coal is used it is in every respect the equal of Pittsburgh coal. There is thousands of acres of this bituminous coal underlying the hills in the immediate vicinity of Stafford. It is about 18 miles to Warner, on the C. & M. Railroad, and all the way a valley route over which a railroad can be built at a very small cost per mile. Reaching Warner it is but a short distance to the river, when perhaps Marietta will some day wake up to a realizing sense of its natural advantages and want more coal, or the river once reached the lower river markets are open to Stafford. It is only a question of ____________- the time is soon to come when ________ will begin to realize on its b____ wealth in this coal field. As it is the town consumes annually about 100,000 bushels. 25,000 bushels are mined by the Robinson's alone. Much of this goes east of here to the farmers about Lewisville, and to that place, while Woodsfield burns coal from Stafford. A large amount of territory east, north, and south draw their supplies of coal from these mines. Several mines are worked within about a mile of the village, but then the present mining operations will dwindle into insignificance by comparison with what is yet to be done. Iron oar of excellent quality is found scattered on the surface over a large extent of country about here, but it has not been discovered in any great bodies. These scattered fragments would seem to encourage a search for the place of their origin. Should that be found, all the conditions necessary for manufacturing cheap iron are here. Oil. Two attempts to develop the oil and gas deposits of the neighborhood have been made by a company at the head of which was B. F. PENN, of Carlisle, Ohio. A well was bored on Flag Fork, a short distance from town by this company. This well passed through a sand seven feet in thickness and after a short break, through another stratum sixteen feet thick. This well produces immense quantities of gas, equal in quality and amount to any well in or near the Macksburg field, or indeed to any in the state. A second well, one mile west of the village on Road Fork, was drilled through a twenty-two foot sand of excellent quality as compared with other oil bearing sands. The well had not gas sufficient to cause it to flow, but yields five barrels per day to the pump. this oil is of superior quality. The sand in both these holes gives excellent promise of recompense to the future "wildcater." It is pronounced by experts equal in quality to that found in other oil fields. The relative position of these wells and their distance apart demonstrates the existence of a large bed of oil bearing sand. In it there must be a pool or pools. Who will be the lucky discoverer? The uncertainties of striking it rich have so far deferred farther search but the conditions developed by these two wells will attract some venturesome person who will be lucky enough to make a strike that will insure his fortune and that of many others. In these three things, the coal, the oil and the gas lie buried the hopes of future greatness for Stafford. these furnished substantial hopes for the future. who is to exhume these elements of greatness? They are bound to come to the surface and he who devises a way to utilize them will not only win a future but confer on the inhabitants of Stafford a great boon. There is another item of capital belonging to the town that cannot be measured by dollars and cents, yet it is an essential element in the prospeerity of any town. Dead towns do not have it. If you ask a native whether they have good schools he will answer you proudly, "none better." If you ask him whether they have prosperous churches, Sunday Schools, and moral community he will say and say truly "we are above the average in these things." If you ask whether they need a saloon you are told no. If you ask of their merchants and tradesmen you are told they are alive and do work or sell goods at reasonable prices. Ask them if they think the town has a future and they will point to the things out of which a great future is to be made. Ask if their town is dead and they exhibit signs of anger and answer emphatically "no." In a word they talk their town up and not down, and are delighted at the prospect of anyone coming to reside among them. They do not propose to sit on their own corpse and pronounce it dead. When they reach that point decomposition will have set in. It is the infallable sign. It is not seen here. With a population of about 300 and these resources in sight, two mails per day and daily papers to read, the village has the following business houses and professional men. Planing Mill. Blair and Flowers run this institution. D. BLAIR the senior member of the firm is a Noble county man who learned his trade as carpenter with Tanner and Yockey. J. F. FLOWERS is from Jerusalem, Monroe Co., Ohio. they commenced the business in 1873, the mill at that time standing in the south part of the town. It has since been moved and stands in the eastern suburb. Their main building is 24 x 60 feet. In this is their surfacer and other machinery, dry lumber, benches and tools for manufacturing door frames, window frames, etc. By the side of this is a shed 60 x 14 feet which covers their saw mill and the engine and boiler used in running it and the planer. They saw, dry and dress lumber, manufacture door and window frames and furnish all the wood work that enters into the building of a frame house. They also make a specialty of iron and Asbestos roofing. Carpenter. Randolf TANNER is a native of Fulton county Pennsylvania. He came to Stafford in 1850. Went to California in search of gold, returned after two years. Since then he has stayed here and attended to his legitimate business of carpenter. He is industrious ingenious and reliable, and is generally busy. The Mill. Okey and Sloan own and operate the mill half a mile east of the village. This mill was built in 1838 by Woodman OKEY, father of one of the present owners, Edward OKEY. Edward OKEY has lived in Monroe county all the 62 years of his life. He came into possession of the mill in 1866 and has every since operated it. Three years ago he took as a partener a Mr. SLOAN, and the new firm put in a 30 horse power engine to supplement the stream which goes nearly dry. The mill proper is a three story building 36 x 48 feet. It is furnished with three runs of buhrs and all the machinery necessary for manufacturing first class flour. Attached to the flouring mill is a saw mill 80 x 20 feet, where first-class lumber is manufactured. For nearly half a century this old mill has stood, doubtless having all its machinery changed in that time, yet it is the same reliable old institution. Buggies and Carriages. J. T. MARTIN was born in Belmont county, O., 36 years ago. He learned the blacksmith trade and worked in Lewisville from 1868-1870. He afterwards worked with Peter ULLMAN. Learned carriage making and began for himself here in 1875. The building occupied by his shop is on the top of the hill, north side of main street. In the first room, which is 30 x 36 feet there are two blacksmiths forges and complete set of tools. Here the iron work is done and he does not hesitate to tackle anything in that line. In the second room the wood work of the carriages, wagons, etc. is done. The machinery here is an engine and boiler for power. To the engine are attached one buzz saw, one jig saw, one shaving machine, one sand belt, one boring machine and one mortiser. The third room is occupied by lumber and partly finished work. Up stairs is a drying room, where timber is dried by steam; the balance of the large upstaris being used for a paint shop. A planing machine is to be added to the machinery immediately. This shop employs five or six mechanics and turns out popular and reliable makes of buggies, etc. The two vehicles he has on hand are models of symmetry and staunch make, while he has discovered the secret of giving them the brilliant finish so seldom seen outside of large shops. Part #5 to follow