Chapter XI – West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company

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At some point in the last half of the 1890s, the Lukes began planning the construction of a new paper mill, with the result being the still operating facility at Covington, Virginia.  
The author has not been able to put all the steps in the proper order as to what came first, but among the various pieces of the puzzle that led to the Covington facility were: demand for paper, the availability of the spruce on Cheat Mountain, railroad access to the spruce, and sufficient capital to finance a new facility.  One question is: why not just expand an existing paper mill?

Once the decision had been been made to construct a new paper mill, the next decision would have to be its location.  As noted in Chapter VIII, when he became aware of the plans for a new paper mill, H. G. Davis encouraged WVP&P to locate the mill on his West Virginia Central and Pittsburgh Railroad.  However, the decision was made in March 1899 to locate on the C&O, with Caldwell in Greenbrier County, on the railroad’s new line up the Greenbrier River, as the first choice. The C&O could offer a cheaper rate for shipping the paper to market than the WVC&P and this was probably a key factor in the decision.10  
Did a Pocahontas County native, Charles Forrest Moore, play a role in role in the location of the new paper mill and did Daniel O’Connell also have a role?  Moore was a lawyer, practicing first in Huntersville during the white pine logging days.  He moved to Covington, Virginia, then to Luke, and finally to New York City.  One of his clients at Luke was WVP&P and, as a guess, the move to New York was to continue working for them.  Moore related in a court case that in 1899 he was at Luke and most of his attention was on the affairs of WVP&P.  O’Connell was credited by Moore with being involved with the acquisition of land by WVP&P, other than the Dewing and Fickey and Thomas lands.  In a deposition given in a lawsuit Moore stated, “In the first place I called his [O’Connell] attention to the possibility of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company acquiring the Dewing land, which I had represented to the company could be operated, as I thought, to better advantage, by taking the timber out toward the east, or the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, than by locating their plant west of the property, to be operated on the West Virginia Central, and arranged a meeting between Mr. David L. Luke of the company, and Mr. O’Connell in Washington, at I which I was present. Then Mr. O’Connell took the matter up with considerable interest, and after confirming my statement to the company as to the proper location of their plant, he expressed a desire to do everything he could to consummate their plans in that direction."11  
Plans for the Caldwell site went as far as the preparation of a map showing the paper mill located upstream from present day US Rt. 60 and five railroad sidings to serve the facility.12 
It was reported in March in the local papers that land had been secured at Caldwell and work was underway on the site.  (However, there are no deeds to WVP&P for this site recorded).  But before the people in eastern Greenbrier County had even had time to list all the benefits to their area from this large industry, WVP&P changed its plans and the paper mill site was moved to Covington, Virginia.13 
By the last week of April there were rumors about the possible change in mill location, although the Greenbrier Independent at Lewisburg hopefully believed this would not occur due to the work already done at Caldwell and the further distance of Covington from the timber on Cheat Mountain.14 
The major reason discussed in the newspapers for the change was the threat by the City of Hinton to bring suit against the paper company for the pollution of the Greenbrier River (Hinton’s source of water) if the mill was built at Caldwell.  The Hinton City Council passed a resolution on April 12 stating it would file such a suit.  As noted before, the paper company had been subject to similar problems with the plant at Luke and probably did not want to be faced with the same situation at its new mill.  Some newspaper accounts stated that the mill at Luke would be closed after the new mill was built, but this was denied by the company.  “Inducements” by Covington were also mentioned as well as the unsuitability of the ground at Caldwell for a large industry as reasons for the move.  It was noted that the Jackson River at Covington was already polluted.15 
However, in late March the Times optimistically reported: 
Ground will be broken for the big pulp mill at Caldwell as soon as good weather comes.  We understand there is some complaint by fishermen that the mill will destroy the fish.  From Prof. Mallet’s statements there is no danger.  He was an expert witness in the trial of the company on an indictment for polluting the Potomac.  He is an authority, and testified that at Cumberland, thirty miles below the mill, he found no trace in the water indicating that there was a pulp mill on the river.
As we understand it, the water used by the mill amounts to 30,000,000 gallons a day.  This water is pumped from the river and filtered for use in the paper mill.  The wood used is principally spruce, and when the boiling and washing is done the water which comes out is the color of tea.    check number of gallons
The spruce forests wherever they are found in North America give this color to streams which drain them.  This peculiar color gives the name to the Blackwater of Tucker County, Tea Creek and Red Run in Pocahontas.  Fishermen everywhere agree that these black-water streams in the pine forest are uniformly good fishing waters.  Trout especially thrive in them.
It has been noticed that trout caught in these beautiful tea colored streams have the brightest colors and are more desirable than the yellow trout bred in muddy streams.
There is no unhealth in water impregnated with the tannic acid of spruce wood  We do not apprehend any serious trouble for the people living below Caldwell.16 
The people in Hinton certainly did not agree, as noted in this comment in the Hinton Leader in April 1899:
Judge C. F. Moore, who is attorney for the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, was in town Monday.  From what we can learn he was here to ascertain what steps would likely be taken by our people against his company for polluting Greenbrier River at Caldwell, where they proposed to erect their plant.  Judge Moore is a smooth talker and would try to make us believe that a pulp mill is a water purifier.  We have information from another party at Cumberland, Md., who makes the statement that the Potomac is the most foully polluted stream in the United States and that one of the principal sources of pollution is the pulp mill.17 
In early May it was reported that the new paper mill would be at Covington and work was underway at the new location before the middle of that month.18

Regardless of where the new paper mill was to be located, the source of the pulp wood was fixed and the land on Shavers Fork was acquired by a deed in February 1899, transferring 66,150 acres from James Dewing to John Luke.  The $585,000 price also included the sawmill and planing mill at Point Marion, Pennsylvania, all horses, wagons and logging materials at Huttonsville, and “logging engine, trucks and steel rails at or near Cheat Bridge."  Dewing reserved the right to use the sawmill for up to one year and the planing mill for up to two years.   The new owners were also required to recognize the hunting rights leased to the Sportsmans Club of Cheat Mountain.19   check acres     describe location of 66,000 ac
The purchase price was met by paying $50,000 in cash, $50,000 due in six months with the balance in eight annual payments of $60,625.20 
The deed provided for an additional tract of 5,000 acres to be conveyed to Luke once a legal dispute over it was resolved and if Dewing retains title as a result.  (He did and the 5,000 acres were transferred from Dewing to Luke in August 1902.)21    location
Various other tracts of land and timber rights were also purchased in Luke’s name in 1899.  The St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company sold 4,257 acres of land and 3,530 acres of timber rights, located on the East and West Forks of the Greenbrier River.  For this land and timber WVP&P paid $58,215.  Additional  purchases on the Shavers Fork, Back Allegheny Mountain, and the West Fork of the Greenbrier came to 2,468 acres in fee and 7,117 acres in timber rights.  Also acquired was a 713 acre tract on Gauley Mountain.  The cost of these acquisitions came to about $---------.22     
In Randolph County, Luke purchased another 12,515 acres on the Shavers Fork for $----- in 1899.23 
In addition, tracts of 5,500 acres on the headwaters of Cherry River and Hills Creek and 592 acres on Hills Creek were also purchased in 1899.  The cost for this land was $28,720.24    
By a deed in July 1901, Luke transferred the Dewing land to the WVP&P Company and in September 1902 he transferred the other land and timber he had acquired in 1899.  The Dewing mill at Point Marion nor the logging equipment at Cheat Bridge were not put in the WVP&P name but disposed of ------- 25 
An early decision that had to be made was the best way to gain access to the company’s new timberland on Cheat Mountain, which, unfortunately, was a mountain away from the route of the C&O’s branch line being constructed up the Greenbrier River. 
How many possible routes to reach the timber were considered are not known at this date, but the one selected, up Leatherbark Creek, was probably the only one feasible.  This stream provided access to the Shavers Fork at a low place in Back Allegheny Mountain “only” 1,514 feet above the Greenbrier River route of the new C&O branch line.  At this gap the Shavers Fork was only a short distance away with very little drop in elevation.
Among the land purchased by Luke in 1899 was a tract of 136 acres from Jacob Gum at the mouth of Leatherbark Creek, for $1,000.  The deed for this purchase was dated in April, so perhaps it can be assumed that the route up Leatherbark had been selected by then.26                                                                                                                                  
As the operating company for its Cheat Mountain land, WVP&P had the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company incorporated on May 8, 1900.  Incorporators were Joseph K. Cass, John G. Luke, Samuel E. Slaymaker, David L. Luke, and C. F. Moore.  In recognition of the fact that the company’s Cheat Mountain land contained timber suitable for both lumber and pulp, the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company was incorporated for a general lumber and timber business.  The Gum tract was transferred to the W. Va. Spruce Lumber Company in July 1901.27   
Also on May 8, 1900, the Pocahontas Supply Company was also chartered with the same incorporators.28     
Slaymaker was new to the company but assumed an important role in the development of the operation on Cheat Mountain.  ---  He also handled the sales for the lumber produced by the Cass mill, though S. E. Slaymaker & Company ---  was not incorporated until 1909, incorporators were SES, JG Luke, AK Luke, Henry F. Harrison, George F. Nelson, all NYC, 11/20/1909 - PCDB 52, p 181

Employed to be the onsite manager of the new operation was Emory P. Shaffer.  “Mr. Shaffer was an excellent choice for manager. He proved to be a woodsman, lumberman, master organizer and superb supervisor.  He could do almost any job on a logging operation except saw and file in the mill.  He became the driving force of the sawmill and lumbering operations when being planned and became one of the most widely known and highly respected lumbermen in the industry.  It would be difficult to overestimate the importance of Emory P. Shaffer to the future of the lumber operations at Cass and, consequently, to Cass itself.”29   
Shaffer was a native of Pennsylvania, received an educational background in business, and was associated with lumber industry in his home state and at Bayard, West Virginia, where he became associated with Slaymaker, before coming to Cass in March 1900, at the age of 29.  He remained the driving force behind the Cass operation until his retirement in 1934.30 
In June 1900 there was an agreement between Joseph K. Cass, John Luke, David Luke, Adam Luke  and Charles Moore to incorporate the West Virginia Boom and Spruce Lumber Company for general lumber business with right to construct a boom across Greenbrier River at or near the mouth of Leatherbark Creek, a sawmill or mills and other mills used in the manufacture of lumber, and operate logging railways.   As far as is known, this company was never incorporated and neither is the reason why it was being considered.  Perhaps, and this is pure speculation by the author, floating the timber the company owned on the two forks of the Greenbrier to Cass might have been  under consideration.31
Selected as the name for the company’s new town was Cass.  As the Lukes already had a town named for them, so it must have been decided to honor their financial partner in the this new venture.  The name was in use by the time of the May 1900 incorporation of the Spruce Lumber Company and Pocahontas Supply Company.

Although WVP&P’s main interest at Cass was the pulp wood needed for paper manufacturing, it moved quickly to also add lumber production to the new operation at Cass.  The company’s land held a large supply of timber species unsuitable for pulp but good for lumber.   Also, pulp wood came from red spruce fifteen inches in diameter and smaller, leaving larger spruce logs available for lumber.
Site preparation for a sawmill was underway in July 1900.  To provide the log storage pond for the mill, a dam was placed across the river and it was completed by the end of 1900.  The foundation for the mill was being worked on by the middle of May 1901, the frame of the building was completed in June, and in late October machinery was being installed.  The mill buildings were completed by December.46 
A news report in June made this prediction: "At Cass things are just beginning to develop but enough is in sight to make one believe that in one year Cass will be the largest town in the county."47  (Although Cass -  - - ---)   
Installed in the mill building was a new Allis Telescopic Mill with an 8-foot band saw, manufactured by the Allis-Chalmers Company.  Used equipment was also installed, including some from the Dewing mill at Point Marion.  Work on the brick power house was under way in October 1901 and boilers were being installed in the next month.  The boilers came from the paper mill at Piedmont or Luke got to be sure.48   
The mill began operating in January 1902 - a news item in the Times from Dunmore gave January 31 as the startup date and noted "Quite a lot of our boys and girls went to Cass last week to see the big mill start."  The first cars of lumber produced by the new mill were loaded on February 14.  By April most of the various startup problems associated with any new mill had been worked out.49  
The dam the company put in the river was compared favorably with another dam in the river:

As the company did for its mill and store operations, the logging railroad was organized as a separate corporation.  However, it took time to come up with the corporate structure desired. 
In November 1899 the Greenbrier and Cheat River Railroad was incorporated with Joseph Cass, John Luke, William Luke, Preston Lea, and Robert Hopkins as incorporators.   (The newspaper article on the incorporation also included David Luke and C. F. Moore)   The G&CR was incorporated “to build a railroad commencing at or near the forks of Greenbrier River in Pocahontas County, and running by the most practicable route to a point at or near Rowlesburg, in Preston County.”53 
The reason for this railroad plan is not clear; perhaps the Lukes were considering moving some of the Cheat Mountain pulpwood to their existing paper mills.
In early 1900 company officials were referring to the railroad as the Greenbrier and Elk River Railroad.  The news report on the first engine passing through Marlinton enroute to Cass stated it was labeled in this fashion.  However, the news account went on say the engine should have been painted “Greenbrier and Cheat River Railroad.”  A newspaper article in late January reporting on a visit to Cass by David Luke, Thomas Luke, and Moore stated they were “inspecting the G. & E. R. R. R.”  A news item the next month also referred to the “G. & E. R. R. R.”54 
A report on an accident on the railroad in November 1903 used the name “Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk River Railway.”55 
The Greenbrier and Elk River name was painted on the first engines and cars acquired by the company for use at Cass.   However, a railroad with this name was not incorporated until August 1905, with the purpose of building a line from Cass to Fishing Hawk on the Coal and Iron Railway.   Incorporators were C. H. Tiffany, John R. Miller, George H. Perkins, A. J. Cody, and C. F. Moore, of ------.  This company was not long lasting, however, the stockholders voting to dissolve it on December 18, 1906.56        other than Moore, who were these people?

This early use of Elk River in referring to the company’s railroad presents one of those historical questions that are not overly important, but are fascinating.  Could the company have been looking towards the Elk River watershed as a timber source as early as 1900 or did someone in an office far away just have a poor knowledge of the geography of the area?  (Fishing Hawk is not on the Elk River, but on the Shavers Fork.)
The first purchase of timber in the Elk River watershed was not made until July 1904 when timber on 1,789 acres was obtained the from the Pocahontas Timber Company.  The cost was $125,00057
In January 1909 the Greenbrier, Elk and Valley Railroad was incorporated with John Luke, David Luke, Adam Luke, Slaymaker, and George E. Nelson as incorporators.  (Nelson was an attorney for the company.)  The incorporation of the GE&V followed the purchase of a large amount of timber land in the Elk River watershed in 1908 and 1909 and was probably associated with the plans to build a railroad in this area.  (Now, using “Elk” in the name of a railroad made some sense.)58 
The GE&V was incorporated to build a railroad from, at, or near, Cass “by way of the Elk and Tygart Valley Rivers to a point at or near Huttonsville.”  Geographically, this does not make a lot of sense, but this makes no difference, since the company was never activated.59 
Finally, with the incorporation of the Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk Railroad in late 1910, WVP&P seems to have found the corporate structure it wanted for the logging railroad.  Incorporators were Slaymaker, Henry L. Condit, John Luke, Perkins, and Nelson.  The company was authorized to build a railroad “from Bemis by way of Shavers Fork to Big Springs Branch of Elk and by way of Elk to Webster Springs.  Branches up Old Field Fork to some point on the Marlinton and Camden Railroad; up Slaty Fork to the C&O near Clover Lick; up Valley Fork to some point on the Valley River Railroad.”  (The route description seems a bit odd; no mention of Cass, for example, or any connection with the company's logging railroad.)60   
(The Marlinton and Camden Railroad was the logging railroad for the Campbell Lumber Company.  The Valley River Railroad connected with the Western Maryland Railroad at Huttonsville and went up the Tygarts Valley River to Valley Head.)  
In December 1913 the charter of the GC&E was amended for the railroad to “begin at Cass, run in NW direction to Spruce, from Spruce along Shavers Fork to Fishing Hawk and to Big Spring Branch of Elk.  Down Elk River to Webster Springs and hence down Elk to the B&O at Centralia.  Branches up Slaty Fork to C&O near Clover Lick, up Valley Fork to some point on the Valley River Railroad and a branch crossing from Valley Fork over Back Fork Mountain to Back Fork of Elk and hence to Webster Springs.”  (This route description make much more sense than the previous one.)61   
In October 1914, WVP&P wrote E. P. Godwin, who was Superintendent of Transportation for the C&O, “we on October 8th, began the operation of the Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk R.R. as a common carrier under the jurisdiction of the West Virginia authorities.”62 

The first area of logging activity was in the Shavers Fork headwaters with rail lines built to the head of the river and then up Black Run.  
A frightening incident occurred not long after the railroad was put in operation. In September 1901 dynamite was placed on the tracks of the new railway but fortunately there were no ill results.  The dynamite was found on the night of 21st by two men walking along the track.  The Times news article on the incident continued:

Dr. Norman R. Price, - made  must have made - a visit to Cass in 1903 and wrote an article for the Times on his adventure, titled "The Cheat River Forests, The Great Lumber Producing Region of Pocahontas"
Even without dynamite on the track, he considered the railroad up the mountain a dangerous rail line:
The railroad reaches the top of the mountain by a series of switch backs and a grade almost as steep as an ordinary wagon road. Of course railroading over a road so steep and full of curves is very dangerous, but the intrepid train crew thrice daily collect the heavily loaded cars and lower them to the mill at Cass, the greater part to the taken to the paper mill at Covington.  Strange to say accidents have been rather infrequent.  The impression of the man who passes over this road for the first time is that the train crew run extraordinary risks of a wreck every time a trip is made.  We advise any one seeking new sensations with a spice of danger, to take a trip over this mountain railway.  The scenery too is magnificent.

  We wish some painter of the 'strenuous life' would go into the lumber camps of Cheat and do for the lumberman what Frederick Remington has done for the plainsman, in depicting men as they are and as they will not always be; for the day of the lumberman is as surely passing with the passing of the forest, as did the cow-boy in the old days of extensive ranching in the west, along with the Indian and Buffalo.
 The typical lumberman is a man of muscle priding himself on his strength and endurance and of a militant spirit.  Physical culture has done its utmost for him, and picturesque dress sets off the lines of his great muscles to advantage.  Even over indulgence in the cup that cheers and inebriates, on his occasional visits to the settlements, cannot break down his rugged constitution.

Fire was always a danger in the logging woods, particularly in the era of steam powered, spark producing, equipment.  In May 1903, logging Camp 5, located   , was destroyed by fire.  It was noted that logging had left the surrounding area covered by dry pine tops "and when fire got into these it could not be stayed."  The fire caused the loss of $4,000 worth of property, both belong to the company and the men.  (Camp 5 had been in use since March of the previous year.)  The fire also threatened Camp 3, but it was noted that it was surrounded by green timber and thus in little danger from fire.71 

In April 1904 Luke transferred ----- acres in Randolph County to the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company.  72  
                 need to compare what is transferred here with footnote 23 - duplication

In March 1904 a letter was received from the Wright Cycle Company, of Dayton, Ohio, asking for a quote on “about 500 feet of the finest possible spruce for us in constructing flying machines.  It must be entirely free from knots, and the grain must be straight and free from twist.  It should be from 16 to 20 ft. long and two inches thick.”  Handwritten on the letter is “Yes at $50”.  The Wrights did get lumber from Cass and it is believed it was used to construct the “Wright Flyer No. 3.”  Seven years later, in 1911, an article on the company reported that “Cheat River valley spruce is the dependence of the builders of flying apparatus.  It is being used almost exclusively by the French government and also by the Wright brothers in the construction of their flyers.”73   

In the spring of 1905 it was reported that the capacity of the mill was increased from 75,000 feet to 125,000 feet daily by the addition of another band saw.  The new saw was in operation by late March.74  
On March 14, 1905, trains with locomotives No. 2 and No. 3 collided in a curve, location not given.  The only injury was to the back of one of the engineers.  “The trains were disentangled and got under way in a few hours.”75 
 In December 1905 it was reported “The Cheat Mountain Railway has worked its way to the waters of the Elk River and the trains can be seen from the Elk side working around the mountain.”  This rail line came up Black Run and around the north and west side of Mace Knob, into the headwaters of Cup Run, with a spur into the headwaters of the Tygart Valley River.76  
 As the headwaters of the Shavers Fork were being timbered, the rail line was also being extended downstream.  In 1905 the track had reached as far as Big Run, five miles from Spruce; by 1908 another five miles was in place.77 
In January 1906 an agreement was made with E. V. Dunlevie for pulpwood from his land in upper Pocahontas County and Highland County.  Under the agreement, Dunlevie sold all the spruce pulp wood and slabs on his land to the paper company at a price of $5.50 per cord for pulp wood, $4 per cord for peeled slabs, and $2 per cord for unpeeled slabs.  Dunlevie was to cut the pulp wood and slabs into four foot lengths and load them onto cars on the C&O.  Shorter lengths would also be accepted, down to eighteen inches.78
Flooding in February 1908, caused by heavy rain, warm winds and a large accumulation of snow, took out the dam on the 14th.  “At five o’clock a head of water had gathered sufficient to tear loose the fastenings of the big mill dam and for several hours the river gorged full from side to side with ice, timber and drifts.”  There is no evidence the dam was rebuilt.79 
On May 31, 1908, a cloudburst on Cheat Mountain washed out about seven miles of GC&E Railroad’s track.80 

Most of the pulp wood shipped to Covington from Cass still retained its bark.  The bark was peeled at the paper mill and then burned.  This, however, caused a problem because as the bark burned, a feathery ash came in the mill windows and contaminated the pulp.  Also, the space required for the peeling operation cut down on the amount of wood that could be stockpiled.  One solution to the ash problem, peeling the bark from the logs in the woods, was expensive in terms of manpower.81 
As a better solution, in 1904 the company decided to build a rossing (debarking) plant on Cheat Mountain at the source of the pulpwood.  A site for the mill was selected on the Shavers Fork, about mile from the low gap in the mountain used by the railroad.  As this location was too far from Cass for the mill workers to live there, a new community had to be established at the rossing mill.  The name Spruce was selected for the new town.  The camp at the gap had also been given this name, so that location became known as Old Spruce.  A post office had been established at the original site on August 25, 1902, and it was moved to the new location in -----.  (A November 1903 report of news from the original Spruce noted that "The puffing and hissing engines are continually hauling logs to the Railroad Junction at Spruce, a small lumbering hamlet consisting of a store, post office and a number of dwellings.")82
In September 1904 the ground was being cleared for the new town and by the end of December machinery was being installed in the mill.  In February 1905 it was reported that Spruce was nearing completion with many of the houses occupied and the mill to soon be in operation.83
The Spruce mill contained eighteen rossing machines and handled spruce logs fifteen inches or less in diameter, cut into 24 inch lengths.84  
In December 1905 it was reported that the mill employed 480 men, mostly Austrians, with 1,000 more of the same to be added in the spring  “Mr. Jones seems to prefer Austrian labor for the reason that it is hearty, cheerful and contented.”  (The prediction of 1,000 additional employees was never close to coming to reality.)85 
Once the mill was in full operation, twelve to sixteen carloads of pulpwood were shipped off the mountain daily.  Before being moved on to Covington, the daily pulp wood train had additional cars, containing edgings and other wood scrap from the Cass mill, added to its consist.86 

In addition to the pulp mill, Spruce became the center for railroad operations on the mountain.  A shop and other facilities were located there to service the trains.
A school was provided for the children of the workers living at Spruce, but there never was a separate church building.
In 1910 the following description was given of Spruce:
It is a well built and well laid out town.  There is a hotel there with steam heat and hot and cold water, where they give you as good a meal as you can get at the Raleigh.  The cream is of the tin can variety but everything is well cooked and tastes good.  There are tastefully furnished houses too, where there is every comfort of a well appointed home.  The snow lays all winter there but the winters are enjoyable and the summers are beyond compare.  The town is the supply point for numerous lumber camps and the trains are made up here for the mill at Cass and the freight for the C. & O.  The one big industry is the peeling mill preparing pulp wood in billets  Almost twelve car loads a day is the output, the smaller fir logs being manufactured into pulp, and handled by automatic machines.87 

WVP&P also had a pulpwood peeling mill at Fishing Hawk (Bemis) on the Western Maryland Railway line to Durbin.  In July 1904 an agreement was reached with the Coketon Lumber Company for spruce pulp wood on Coketon’s land.  The agreement also provided space in the mill yard for the peeling mill and steam to operate it.  The peeling mill went into operation in 1905 and the pulp wood was shipped to the pulp mill at Davis.88 
Coketon Lumber sold out to J. M. Bemis and Son in January 1906 and the agreements with WVP&P went with the sale.  The closing date for the peeling mill is not certain, but probably was in 1919 when the Davis mill was closed.  If not in 1919, closure would have come with ending of the sawmill operation in 1921.89  

The property acquired by the WVP&P contained another natural resource in addition to timber - coal.  How much knowledge (or interest) the company had about this before buying the land is not known.  There was a news report in August 1902 about two small seams being discovered on company land, location not given.90 
As the railroad was constructed down the Shavers Fork, at a point about ten miles from Spruce it reached an area with mineable coal.  Since it was of good quality, the company decided it would be a financial advantage to mine its own coal.  In May of 1908 there was a news report on the opening of a coal mine.  This mine was called the Hopkins Mine and ------91  

With further extension of the railroad on down the Shavers Fork additional mines were opened.  About 1.5 miles north of Cheat Bridge a mine called the Red Lick Mine was started but it was not operated for long due to the low quality of its coal.  Another unsuccessful mine was the Whitemeadow Mine, 3.5 miles north of Cheat Bridge.  Coal quality and mining conditions caused this one to be abandoned.  More successful was the Linan Mine, 5.5 miles north of Cheat Bridge.  An opening on the east side of the river, Linan No. 1 Mine, was not successful, due to coal and mining conditions, but Linan No. 2 Mine, on the west side, was more successful and was operated for -------92 
    need opening dates
Other mines on the Shavers Fork were Big John Mine and Deer Lick Mine - Fizer

List of mines from Cass Scenic Railroad,  by Hensley and Withers. p - - -
    Hopkins - between Beaver Creek & Buck Run
    Red Run
    Whitemeadow
    Linan 1 & 2 - between Crouch & Yokum Runs
    Big John - between Sutur?? & Stalnaker Runs
    Deer Lick - near Stalnaker Run
    Baldwin 1 & 2 - Bergoo Creek
    Clubhouse - near Cheat Bridge
    unnamed - near Bemis 

The mines provided coal for the company’s equipment, the residents of Cass and Spruce, and may have been shipped to the mill at Covington.

In early May 1908, The Pocahontas Times reported, “There is a rumor that the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company will buy the Innes holdings on the headwaters of Elk river.  For several months estimators have been at work on this land.  It is hoped that this sale will be consumated, as it means the development of of one of the finest pieces of spruce and hemlock to be found in the State.”93 
Actually, it was considerably more than a rumor, as the following week a deed was filed transferring 26,729 acres of land and 11,737 acres of timber rights in the Elk River watershed in Pocahontas, Randolph and Webster Counties to WVP&P from John Innes, of Canton, Pennsylvania.  The cost was $442,643.75.  Of this amount, $265,000 was partly a loan made to Innes and the assumption by WVP&P of payments due on the land and timber.  For the balance, the company issued a number of notes due in one and two years.94
Innes acquired the land and timber in a number of purchases in 1905 and early 1906.   He was --- and must   ---    WVP&P had been looking into the purchase of this land and timber since 1906 and having it appraised.95 
This purchase from Innes was followed in July by the acquisition of timber on seven tracts from S. B. Elkins, totaling 4,143 acres, at a cost of $113,540.  These tracts were in both Pocahontas and Randolph Counties, in both the Elk River and Williams River watersheds.  A tract of 565 acres in Pocahontas County on - Laurel Run, trib to Elk - where? - was purchased in December from John McGraw.  In April 1909 the company purchased timber from James Gibson on an additional 4,483 acres, on fourteen tracts on the various forks of the Elk River for $51,554.50.  McGraw also sold WVP&P timber on and half interest in 600 and 535 acre tracts in Randolph County on the Elk River in May 1909.96 
The Pocahontas Timber Company sold WVP&P half interest in a 2,514 acre tract on Crooked Fork and a 202 acre tract on Little Laurel Creek in June 1911 and three tracts in the Elk watershed, totaling 1,039 acres, in July 1912.  (The other half of the 2,514 acre tract was in the Innes purchase.)  The 1912 sale also included 450 acres at the headwaters of the Tygarts Valley River.  Another sale from PTCo. was a 200 acre tract on Elk River in September 1913.  A tract of 430 acres on Elk River was acquired from the Cherry River Boom and Lumber Company in December 1911.97 
 A large tract of 9,472 acres was purchased from the Upper Elk Coal Company in July 1913 in Randolph and Webster Counties, with a small amount in Pocahontas.  (A later survey put the  tract at 9,706 acres.)  Earlier in the year, in February, 1,300 acres had been purchased on Crooked Fork and timber on 215.5  acres in March.  In April 1,028 acres on the Big Spring Fork was purchased for $15,000.98 
The purchase of 1,789 acres of timber in the Elk River watershed in July 1904 from the Pocahontas Timber Company has previously been mentioned
In August 1910, John G. Luke wrote to H. G. Davis, “we are about to commence grading on our Elk River Branch”  Luke asked Davis for a railroad right-of-way over Davis land where WVP&P had previously purchased the timber.99 
The incorporation of the Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk Railroad, previously mentioned, occurred during the time plans were being made to build a railroad into the Elk watershed.
According to a newspaper article in September 1910, two routes were being considered to access the Elk River valley.  “One passes near the Linwood post office and thence down the Split Rock Valley.  The other is through the Sitlington farm and by easy grades descending the east face of Middle Mountain.”  (Split Rock Valley is the valley of the Big Spring Fork.)   Optimism was expressed that the new railroad would mean great things for Pocahontas County, allowing not only for the development of the timber in the Elk River watershed but also the coal on Gauley Mountain.  In describing the route of the new line, the writer became almost lyrical:
The aspect presented by this road is that of descending from the clouds, but so broad and sweeping is Cheat Mountain, where its sides are flanked that it admits of a fine grade.  It will reach the highest altitude of any road in the State, passing over a mountain more than four thousand feet above the sea.  . . .  As the grade rounds the mountain side at the Hevener place the panorama of the broad Tygarts Valley is spread below as far as the eye can reach.  Then swings into full view the grass lands of the Elk, backed by the sombre hued sides of Gauley Mountain.100 
This article also predicted that a large tannery would be established, probably located at the forks of Elk River.  A news report in December predicted the new rail line would make a connection with the C&O at Marlinton, providing a link between the C&O, B&O, and WM railroads.  “It will be but a short time until there is a connection with the C. & O. at Marlinton, and we expect to see the W. M., the B. & O. and the C. & O. joined together by the Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk Railway, which will be the finest little railroad system in the world, and the richest county in the state will be developed in our time.”101 
The railroad line to reach the Elk River was under construction before the end of 1910.  The biggest obstacle in building the line was crossing the divide between the Shavers Fork and Tygarts Valley River watersheds.  This was eventually accomplished by digging what today is referred to as the “Big Cut,” located a mile from Spruce.  However, the first plan was for crossing the divide was an 800 foot tunnel.  By the end of November 1910, the rail line had been completed to the tunnel site and work was underway on the tunnel face.  Two miles of railroad grade beyond the tunnel were reported ready for ties at this time.102     
 - tunnel not used because red shale would not support roof without lining (Deike - Train Ride Into History)

The project to dig the cut turned out to be a long one.  The company purchased a steam shovel from the Marion Company to facilitate the work.  In September 1913 where was a news report that the cut was nearing completion, but this was optimistic.  In May 1914 it was reported that there was still twenty feet to go for a level grade.  The cut, 2,000 feet long and 100 feet deep, was finally completed -----.  Trains crossing the cut reached an altitude of 4,012 feet - check.  Although logging lines went higher, this became the highest point on an interstate railroad in the eastern United States after the line was later purchased by the Western Maryland Railway.103   check this claim    
To allow timbering to begin on Elk River, a rail line was constructed over the ridge and on to Slaty Fork.  Material from the cut was used for construction of this line, to fill in trestles that were constructed when it was first built.104   check this claim with other sources 

 However, it was so steep that only one car of logs could be handled at a time. LSC, p 18 - OBL says only a couple of cars at at time, p 78
Leatherbark, p 78, has report from PI, 8/7/1913, that logs were stockpiled and not hauled
However, the trip across the divide must not have too big a problem, otherwise why did the company take so long in digging the cut - if it wanted, the cut could have been done in a few months at most

Slaty Fork (also referred to as Laurel Bank) became the center of Elk railroad operations with a railroad shop, commissary, and employee housing.105
While the work on the cut continued, timbering started on the company’s Elk lands.  Existing evidence indicates the company began cutting on the Old Field Fork, above Slaty Fork, but also started work on the railroad down the Elk River towards Webster Springs.  It was reported that a survey crew had located a grade to this town by early April 1911.106 
Rights-of-way for a railroad on Old Field Fork were obtained in 1912 and work constructing a rail line up that stream was underway in March.  Trains were running for five miles by December 1912.  In February 1913 a survey crew was locating railroad grade at the head of Tea Creek and reported to have killed four bears.107 
A news item in October 1912 was complimentary of the work being done by the company.  “Their railroad has been built well at great expense.  The steel is much heavier than that of the Greenbrier Division of the C&O.”108 
In September 1913 there was a labor problem on the track construction work near Slaty Fork.

At the same time that the rail line to the Elk River timber was under construction, logging on the headwaters of the Shavers Fork was being completed and the work was moving downstream.  The headwaters were logged out by 1910 and timbering reached the Cheat Bridge area that year.115 
As the railroad on Shavers Fork was being extended downstream it was getting closer towards a connection with the Durbin Branch of the Western Maryland Railway.  In December 1910 a writer in The Pocahontas Times commented on the extension:
The new railroad will bring this country in full development and work is being pushed on it.  The road is being graded toward Bemis or Fishing Hawk; and has reached a point some seven miles below Cheat Bridge toward the Western Maryland connection.  By the way we have decided opinions about Mr. Bemis, who ever he is, changing the name of Fishing Hawk to his own noble cognomen.  These new comers ought not to be monkeying with our institutions.116       
An article in the Elkins Inter-Mountain in 1910 describes the visit of John, David, Thomas, and William Luke and Joseph Cass to their Cheat Mountain operations.  Leaving New York on May 29, they first visited the paper mill at Covington and then came on to Cass.  They spent May 31 visiting the operations on the mountain and had lunch that day at the Cheat Mountain Sportsman’s Association’s club house at Cheat Bridge.  The nights of May 30 and 31 were spent at Spruce.  On the evening of the 1st, their private car was attached to the regular passenger train to Durbin and then run as a special on to Davis:
They were traveling in a Pullman private car, and went in that car seventeen miles down the Shavers Fork of Cheat River, from the top of Cheat Mountain to the club house.  This is the first passenger coach that ever visited the top of Cheat Mountain.  What would the old hunters have said if they could have dropped into their former hunting ground and have seen a Pullman car traveling down Shavers Fork?117    
The article also related that almost all the spruce had been cut on the Dewing Tract in Pocahontas  County and much of it in Randolph County.
The American Lumberman magazine did a lengthy article on WVP&P’s Cass operation in 1911.  At this time the company was at the end of its first decade of business at Cass. Some of the highlights about the company from the article:
• the railroad had twenty-five miles of mainline track with 85 pound rail and ballasted, about as much in logging branches, and ten to fifteen miles of siding at Cass and Spruce.  
• five Shay locomotives were in use, along with a hundred forty-foot flat cars of 80,000 capacity.
• the company owned about 80,000 acres which is producing about 20,000 feet of spruce to the acre
• about 1,000 men were employed, with four to six camps in operation
• the mill was turning out an average of 125,000 feet of spruce lumber each day with an annual production of about 35,000,000 feet.
• in May 1910 the company shipped 1,149 cars of pulpwood, lumber and slabs.118 
As the article in American Lumberman reported, the company was using five engines in 1911.  For the first decade of the Cass operation, this was the maximum number that had been in use.  The newest engine was No. 5, built and purchased in 1905, and the locomotive fleet had not been enlarged since then.  
However, with the opening of a second logging area, Elk River, and the distances to the logging sites becoming longer on Shavers Fork, additional motive power was needed.  There was also a need for more capable engines with the railroad to Elk River.  From its first day of operation the logging railroad had a steep grade in the line from Cass to Old Spruce (the Cass Hill), but the upgrade trains were pulling empty cars.  With the move to Elk, there was now a steep climb for loaded trains, from Slaty Fork to the Big Cut.
In the 1912 - 1915 period the size of the locomotive fleet was doubled, beginning with a 100-ton Shay, No. 8, in 1912.  Another 100 ton Shay, No. 11, was acquired in 1914.  These engines were used mainly on the Cass Hill, bumping Nos. 4 and 5 from this duty.  Three 65-70-ton engines - secondhand Shay No. 6 and new Shay No. 10, acquired in 1914, and another secondhand Shay, second No. 1, purchased in 1915 - were used for work in the woods.  (First Shay No. 1 was sold before 1915, but the exact date is not known; perhaps as early as 1909.)119 
• February 1914 - Slaty Fork news, "No. 6 is a new engine of the road."
• June 1914 - report that a new locomotive arrived on the 25th, the tenth engine in use.120
Two smaller engines, a 40-ton Climax, No. 6 (number later change to No. 9), and a 42-ton Shay, No. 7, were moved to Cass in 1913 after the completion of the company’s Stony River Dam in Grant County.  They were of little value at Cass due to their size, saw limited use, and were disposed of in a few years.121 
While the logging at Cass was beginning its expansion to the Elk River and moving downstream on the Shavers Fork, changes were occurring at the corporate level. 
In 1909 it was decided to concentrate all the assets in one company, the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company of Delaware.  The assets of the WVP&P Company of West Virginia and the West Virginia Spruce Lumber Company were transferred to the Delaware corporation by deeds in January 1910.  Involved were 98,500 acres of ------, --.  By action of its stockholders on -----, the WVP&P Company of West Virginia was dissolved and ------- was also done with the WV Spruce Lumber Company.122

The 98,500 acres included the purchase from Dewing and the other acquisitions by Luke in 1899.  The major land and timber purchases since 1899 were those in the Elk River watershed already described.  Other large acquisitions prior to the transfer to the Delaware corporation included one-third interest in a 2,648 acre tract on the West Fork and 4,643 acre tract on the East Fork in 1902, at a cost of $21,076; --- interest in --- in Randolph County, also in 1902; 500 acres, 8,405 acres on Shavers Fork, 2,856 acres, --- in Randolph County in 1904; --   123

Some of the company's property had been sold prior to the transfer.  These were the sale of timber on 4,000 acres on the East Fork of the Greenbrier River to the Condon-Lane Boom and Lumber Company, 5,500 acres of land on the headwaters of the Cherry River to the Cherry River Boom and Lumber Company, both sales in 1902, and a 1,003 acre tract and timber on 342 acres on the West Fork of the Greenbrier River to G. C. Mohn in 1904.  A 135 acre tract was also sold in 1904.124

before sale to C-L, a lawsuit was filed by WVP&P alleging timber was being cut on East Fork land without permission of WVP&P, the 2/3s owners selling timber to C-L
need order book references - also when was the land itself sold?  125

Officers of the WVP&P Company in 1911 were John G. Luke, President, David L. Luke, Vice-president, Adam K. Luke, Treasurer, and Charles A. Cass, Secretary.  S. E. Slaymaker was Manager of the Lumber Department.  John Luke had held the position of President since his father had relinquished the position in 1904.  William Luke died on November 24, 1912, at age 84.126
By 1915 the cutting activity on the Shavers Fork was -- miles below Spruce  -- near Linan -- and by June 1917 it was reported that only six miles of railroad needed to be constructed to make the WM connection.  This junction, named Cheat Junction, was made in 1918 where the WM Durbin Branch left the Shavers Fork and headed for the Greenbrier River watershed.127

To make additional use of the wood it was harvesting from its land, WVP&P decided to add an extract plant to its Cass operations to use the bark from the peeling mill that was going to waste.  From the bark it was possible to produce tannins used in the leather industry and to make dyes.  
A site at Deer Creek, below Cass, was selected and work was underway on the new plant in November 1913, with the frame reported up in January.  In February the company advertised that it "Wanted, fifty carpenters at once" for the "Chemical Dept."  The new facility was in limited operation in December 1914 and full operation the next year.131  
The plant produced hemlock and spruce bark extracts and a limited quantity of chestnut wood extract.  The production of the plant was shipped in either powdered or liquid form.  For shipment of extract in liquid form, the company had its own tank cars.  Operation of the plant was by a WVP&P subsidiary company, the Industrial Chemical Company of New York.132  
The facility consisted of three large bark storage sheds, power house, chipping house, soaking tanks, pan and autoclave building, shipping facilities, and office building.  Additional housing was constructed at the south end of Cass for the workers of the new facility.133            
The exact process for producing the extract has not been determined, but it was not complicated.  The bark was first ground into finely divided chips and then loaded into the soaking tanks, made of cypress wood.  Water is thought to have been the solvent used to remove the tannins from the bark.  The tanks were probably heated with steam to promote the process.  The resulting solution of water and extract was passed through evaporators to increase the extract concentration.  This process continued until the required product was obtained, either a liquor or a powder, depending on what the customer wanted.134
During World War I, a considerable quantity of osage orange dyewood extract was produced in both liquid and powdered form, which was used in the dyeing of khaki cloth, in place of fustic dyewood extract.  The osage bark used in for this purpose was shipped to Deer Creek from the south and midwest.135 
Operation of the extract plant continued into the 1920s, no doubt with curtailed production. The last newspaper references found on the operation of the plant are in November 1925, when it was reported that the plant was again in operation.   In December WVP&P requested coal cars from the C&O to move coal from Cheat Mountain mines to the plant.  Six cars were supplied by the railroad and they were returned in February 1926.136      
Both 1926 and 1928 are given as the closing dates for the plant.  The closing of the peeling mill at Spruce in 1925 would have eliminated the easily obtained supply of bark. “As the automobile replaced the horse, the leather market suffered and the tanning extract plant near Cass was closed in 1928.”137 
 In March of 1929 the machinery and other material from the plant were advertised for sale.  "For Sale materials at Extract Plant   Cass, West Va.     Lumber, Brick, Tools, Buildings suitable for barns, outbuildings, etc."  The advertisement was lengthy.   Items to be sold included 

Among the tracts of timber purchased by John Luke in 1899 were 1,750 acres on the east slope of Back Allegheny Mountain, north of Cass.  At the time the operation was getting underway in 1900-1901 there was advice from local residents to cut some of this timber first rather than work on Cheat Mountain in midwinter.  The recommendations must not have been too serious, or not taken seriously by the company, and work continued up Leatherbark Creek.139 
WVP&P turned its attention to this timber in the mid-1910s.  In May 1914 the company obtained rights-of-way at Hosterman for a railroad line up Allegheny Run and had a survey crew at work the same month.  However, the rail line from the C&O to the timber on Allegheny Run was not completed until August 1916 and a spur up Trout Run might have been constructed first.140   
  Other spur lines were constructed from the C&O up Deever Run and Dry Run.  C&O records do not indicate when the switch for the line up Deever Run was installed or removed; for the other three, September 1915 is given as the installation date for the switches.  In June 1916 a right-of-way on Deever Run was purchased.141 
WVP&P ran its own locomotives and cars from Cass over the C&O to these spurs and was charged $2.50 per car by the railroad company for the privilege of operating over its line.142 
 Additional timber in the area - need better description - was acquired with the company purchase of tracts containing 140, 433, and 320 acres from the Pocahontas Tanning Company in November 1915.  Several other timber purchases were made between 1904 and 1917 on small acreages.143   
In August 1916, the Hosterman correspondent for the Times wrote that the company “have been doing a rushing business shipping off their timber.”144 
The operation on the “Hosterman Division” ended by 1922.  The switch for the Trout Run spur was removed in 1921 and the Allegheny Run and Dry Run spur switches were taken out in 1922.145  
Perhaps WVP&P’s most serious wreck, in terms of locomotive damage, occurred on this operation.  Unfortunately, details are not certain.  The most likely version has the wreck involving Shay No. 3 and happening on Deever Run, perhaps in March 1919.  There is no doubt the train - engine, log loader, and several loaded log cars - ran away and left the track below the Back Mountain Road.  The train either got out of control after leaving the log landing or was unattended, not properly secured, and moved off on its own.  There are no accounts of any injuries.  From photographic evidence the engine was badly damaged.  Shay No. 10 has also been identified as the engine involved in the accident.146   

The 1920s saw the peak of operations, with cutting in both the Cheat and Elk watersheds, a number of changes, and the beginning of the decline.
Early in the decade, a potential economic disaster hit the town of Cass and Pocahontas County when the mill complex was destroyed by fire on February 24, 1922.  The  Pocahontas Times  reported:

    PT 5/29/1924 - company getting ready to cut on Fishing Hawk Creek
    103-108, 6/29/15 or 18, tbr trade between WVP&P and J. M. Bemis and Son, tbr on 581 and 324 to Bemis, tbr on 858 to WVP&P - need more detail

In April 1924 the Pocahontas Supply Company purchased the company store building at Bemis but had the misfortune to lose it by fire in two months, on June 6.  The building was rebuilt and continued in operation until June of 1929, when it was sold to the Davis Coal Land Company.159 
The mid-1920s saw the peak of operations at Cass.  Fifty to sixty-five cars of logs and pulpwood came off the mountain each day and the sawmill operated two eleven-hour shifts.  Several cars of lumber and over thirty cars of pulpwood left on the C&O freight trains each day.160 

But referring to a moment in time as a peak implies a decline and this began in the mid-1920s for the Cass operation.
Early in the decade, WVP&P must have become concerned about the depletion of the spruce supply on Cheat Mountain.  Much of it had been cut since timbering began and new growth was too slow to keep up with the needs of the Covington mill.  In the late summer of 1922 the company sent forester Sam Sweeney to Nova Scotia to investigate the possibility of obtaining spruce pulpwood from that Canadian provence.  Suitable timber was found and 22,500 acres of crown land were leased.  After cutting, the pulpwood was transported by ship to Norfolk, Virginia, and then moved by the C&O to Covington.161  
However, the pulpwood obtained in this fashion was found to be too expensive to use at Covington and the mill began to use the locally available Virginia pine to keep up with its need for pulp.162 
The first major cutback in the Cass operation came in 1925 when the company closed the pulp peeling mill at Spruce.  The reason for this action has not been found, but the decreasing amount of spruce and other timber suitable for pulp must have played a role in the company’s decision.  Also, the need for a locomotive terminal at Spruce was reduced due timber no longer being cut nearby and the fuel/water capacity of Shays 12, 13, and 14 allowed them to operate from Bemis or Bergoo to Cass without an intermediate stop.  The post office at Spruce was closed on August 31, 1925.163   
Cutting the timber in the Shavers Fork watershed ended in 1926 with the completion of the work on Fishing Hawk Creek.  For the next thirteen or fourteen years the logs came from the Elk River watershed only.164     
A major change involved the company’s railroad, with the purchase by the Western Maryland Railway of the “main line” from Cheat Junction to Bergoo.  This acquisition began with a contract on March 3, 1927, for the sale of all the stock in the GC&E from WVP&P to WM.  The Interstate Commerce Commission gave its approval for the stock purchase on November 28, 1927.165 
 By deeds dated March 14, 1928, the GC&E transferred ownership of the railroad from Spruce to Cass, the Cass shop, and the branch lines at Bergoo (on Leatherwood Creek) and Slaty Fork (on Old Field Fork and Crooked Fork) to WVP&P.166 
On the same date WVP&P transferred back to GC&E the line from Cheat Junction to Spruce.  This section of the line had been transferred to the lumber company’s name in December 1920.  The reason is not certain, but this transfer may have been done to prevent the opening of common carrier traffic to the coal mines on Shavers Fork.167 
The sale of the GC&E gained the WV Pulp and Paper Company $1,585,000.168

Reasons for WVP&P to sell its rail line:
    • coal development on Elk and no wish to be asked to haul? - 
    • line below Spruce not needed for logging after 1926? - other ?
The Western Maryland purchased this line because of the large coal deposits and timber resources  - 200,000,000 tons and 432,000,000 bd ft given in ICC approval of WM buying WVM - need to find figures from ICC documents for WM purchase of GC&E

Included in the transactions was additional land at Cheat Junction, Spruce, Slaty Fork, and Bergoo as needed by the Western Maryland to improve existing grades and curvature.  One of the first projects done by the rail line’s new owner was to change the track arrangement at Spruce to allow trains to run through.  WVP&P track arrangement was oriented towards moving trains to Cass, not to Elkins.  The existing loop in the track was the result of this work.  
During the more than two years it took the WM to complete the upgrading of the track so its equipment could operate on the line, WVP&P locomotives pulled the coal trains up the steep grade from Slaty Fork to Spruce.169 
Under Western Maryland ownership, operation of the line remained in the name of the Greenbrier, Cheat and Elk until GC&E was merged into WM on January 20, 1950.170
In ---- 1929 the portion of the West Virginia Midland Railway from Bergoo to Webster Springs was acquired by GC&E, with approval by the Interstate Commerce Commission given in December.   As noted earlier, a survey for a railroad to Webster Springs was done by WVP&P in 1911.  However, WVP&P had never laid track beyond Bergoo.  In April 1925 the WVM obtained ICC authority to build a railroad from Webster Springs to Bergoo and it was completed in 1929. It was built to standard gauge with a third rail to allow the narrow gauge equipment of the WVM to operate over the line.171 
The purchase of the GC&E by the WM gave new life to the town of Spruce.  As with the lumber company, the grade from Slaty Fork to the Big Cut was a major problem.  To operate trains on this section of line required the use of more locomotives than were needed for most of the run.  A coal train needed six to eight engines on the line up the mountain from Slaty Fork. 
The WM decided to station these “helper” engines at Spruce.  From there they would run to Slaty Fork, join an outbound coal train, and leave the train when it arrived at Spruce.  
By the end of the 1920s, the WVP&P Cass operation was not what it was a few years earlier.  
In 1927 operation of the Cass mill was cut back to one eight-hour shift.172 
Another locomotive, No. 2, were taken out of service in 1929 or 1930.  It and No. 3 were scrapped in the early 1930s.173 

Baldwin Mines No. 1 and 2 - on Bergoo Creek - Fizer states they were opened in late 1920s
LB, p 84, these mines on ridge between Bergoo Creek and Leatherwood Creek, opened in the late 1920s and continued to 1939 - where was also a WVP&P mine on Mill Run, before 1920

This trend towards reduced operations was accelerated by the Depression that hit the country in 1929.

The Great Depression of the 1930s had its impact on the Greenbrier Valley as it did all across the United States.  In some ways it would have been worse for the valley had it come ten or fifteen years earlier.  But by the end of the 1920s most of the original timber in the valley had been cut over and the majority of the lumber companies had long since closed their mills in the valley, so depression had already begun in the area.  The Depression closed one of the remaining major industries in the valley, the tannery at Marlinton.  However, both the WVP&P mill at Cass and the Pocahontas Tanning Company tannery at Frank remained open during the Depression years, giving a base of employment for the residents of Pocahontas County.  Local lumbermen also found work in the camps of the Cherry River Boom and Lumber Company on the Gauley and Williams Rivers during the Depression years.   
 However, despite the tragedy of these years, the Depression might have had one positive aspect for the Cass operation and its employees.  Had the demand for lumber and paper not slowed due to the economic turndown, the rate of cutting might have depleted the timber supply at some point in the 1930s.174  
By the early 1930s the company’s need for a large fleet of locomotives was greatly diminished and only four were in regular operation.  The two 100-ton Shays, Nos. 8 and 11, were retired in 1931 and finally scrapped in 1939.  No. 14 was sold in 1932.  Of the remaining Shays, Nos. 1, 5 and 6 were kept at Slaty Fork, with one servicing the Baldwin coal mine and the other two working in the woods.  One of the remaining 150 ton engines, usually No. 12, made the run from Slaty Fork to Cass.175 
The long run from Slaty Fork to Cass required No. 12 to stop several times for water.  To prevent these delays, in the spring of 1933 the water tank portion on the locomotive was lengthened by the Cass shop, with an additional truck added to support the longer tank.  This increased the weight of No. 12 to around 200 tons (weight ranges from 192 to 203 tons in various references) and the argument continues today among Shay historians as to whether this made her the largest Shay ever; certainly the largest ever in logging service.176 
In May of 1933, it was reported that a timbering operation on Slaty Fork was begun.  At the head of the stream, two skidders were used to bring logs from the eastern side of Gibson Knob to the end of track, for a total distance of 1.5 miles.  This was the longest ever logs were moved by skidder on the Cass operation.177 
In March 1934 the name of the Bergoo Coal Company was changed to Elk Coal Mining Company.178 
For perhaps the first time in the history of Greenbrier Valley logging, a strike by employees was the reason for the Cass mill to shut down in August 1934.179   
Unions were never much of a factor in the early days of logging in the valley.  Lumbermen had more freedom to move from job to job than employees of many other industries.  A good woodsman, dissatisfied with his working conditions for one company, could usually easily find employment with another.  The short life span of the average lumber operation in the early 1900s probably also impacted efforts to create unions in this industry.  
Mill workers were generally not as mobile a group so what efforts there were to unionize were concentrated on them.   There were efforts to unionize the Cass workers, beginning with the International Woodworkers of the World in the early 1900s.  However, with strong opposition from WVP&P management, unionization efforts made little headway over the years.180 

did strike just involve mill men or were other employees involved also - PT, 8/9/1934 refers to strike among lumbermen of WVP&P and CRB&L - and was a effort to unionize the main reason?

The mill resumed operations in November after a three-month shutdown due to the strike.181    
not clear if a union was formed then - On December 17, 1937, WVP&P employees voted 129 - 63 for the United Timber and Sawmill Workers to be their bargaining agent.182 

In August 1936 it was estimated that it would take about two years to finishing cutting the timber on the company’s land on Elk.  This turned out to be a little pessimistic, but not by much.  The logging for the final years in the Elk watershed was in the area around Slaty Fork (town), including Slaty Fork (stream).  Logging picked up in the late 1930s.  In August 1939 it was reported that three skidders were being operated.183 
In mid-1940 the lumbering in the Elk River watershed was completed and timbering operations moved back to the Shavers Fork.  The company had operated about 70 camps during the lumbering years on Elk River.184 
Deike in 100 Years Against the Mountain, p - - ,  states that logging moved back to Cheat River in 1938

PT, 11/11/1937 - skidder near Slaty Fork mentioned
PT, 2/3/1938, 3/3/1938 - reports of camps on Gauley Mt. shutting down (WVP&P or CRB&L ?)
PT, 6/9/1938 - mill to start up and work four days a week
PT, 8/18/1938 - SF news, 2 more skidders to start

71-383, reference to WVP&P r/w on Slaty Fork expiring on 7/1/1936, Wright given permission to arrange with WVP&P to have have tracks - left? - in place on the r/w as far as convenient to reach the mill seat  This is contract, 4/9/1936, from L D Sharp to J E Sutherland and  W C Wright, dba Wright Lbr Co for tbr and a mill seat - reread to check details

Clark Galford, 12/18/2006 - worked on Dry Branch of Elk in 1940 for contractor Norman Shaw - cutting virgin hardwoods - timber the skidders could not reach - moved to site on Shavers Mountain, above Wildell, that winter.

Since the initial purchases on the Shavers Fork and the headwaters of the Greenbrier River at the turn of the century and in the Elk River watershed in the 1910s, the WVP&P had not acquired a large amount of new acreage. 
 The largest tract purchased was one of 2,052 acres at the head of Clover Creek in Pocahontas County in January 1924.185    how did the company log this land? - there was a rail line up Slaty Fork, did it reach this timber? 

However, there were numerous purchases of smaller tracts over the years in Pocahontas, Randolph, Webster Counties.  The total number of acres acquired by WVP&P in these counties  was ---- by the mid-30s186
A small amount of land had been sold   Already mentioned was the sale of the 5,500 acres on Cherry River in 1902 and others up to 1904.   page 19 - check for any sales between these and 1930s  187
In 1935 WVP&P moved to make a large reduction in its Cass holdings and gave the Forest Service options on a large part of its land.  The options were followed by deeds in December 1936 for tracts totaling 59,294 acres, to become part of the Monongahela National Forest.  The deeds contained the reservation of mineral rights on some of the tracts for forty years.  The land was in Randolph, 39,368 acres, Pocahontas, 17,759 acres, and Webster, 2,167 acres.188   
The biggest acreages sold were on the Shavers Fork north of Rt. 250 and on Gauley Mountain  The other tracts were scattered and located on the East and West Forks of the Greenbrier, on the Greenbrier River north of Cass, on Clover Lick Mountain, and on Hills Creek.
The company received $296,799 from the sale of this land and the funds were part of the financing of a new kraft mill in Charleston, South Carolina.189 
The largest tract not sold was on the Shavers Fork headwaters. The other land retained was located ----  

As noted before, timbering had been completed in the Elk watershed and moved back to the Shavers Fork in mid-1940.   The area cut after the return to the Shavers Fork was ------
During the late 1930s several changes occurred in the operations at Cass.  Logs began to be transported to the mill by truck as well as log train.  
    LB, pp 143-144 - was the Clover Creek timber moved by truck?  - purchased in 1924, too early

Corporate changes in this period were the dissolution of the S. E. Slaymaker and Company, approved at a stockholders meeting on December 3, 1936, and the Elk Coal Mining Company, by stockholder action on December 20, 1940.190 

The Baldwin mines near Bergoo were closed in 1939. - Fizer, Coal and Cass, Leatherbark, p 84

However, the biggest change in the history of the lumber operation at Cass came with the sale of the property to the Mower Lumber Company, of Charleston. 

The sale occurred in June of 1942, although the land, mill, railroad, and equipment did not officially change ownership until August of the next year, in two deeds; first to Frank Edwin Mower and then to the company.  
Even with the sale of land to the federal government a few years before, the sale to Mower came to 64,456 acres.  The deeds divided the land into sections:
    Section One - Cheat Lands, 49,556 acres
    Section Two - West Fork of the Greenbrier, 1,948 acres
    Section Three - Cass, 594 acres
    Section Four - Deer Creek, 389 acres
    Section Five - Elk Lands, 11,566 acres
    Miscellaneous Lands - 403 acres
There were also mineral rights on an additional 57,493 acres.191 
Locomotives included in the sale to Mower were Nos. 1, 5, 6, 12, and 13.
The Pocahontas Supply Company was not involved in the sale to Mower and was dissolved by action of its stockholders at a meeting on June 22, 1942.192 
price $350,000?  - price in 79-36 is $1 + OVC, $350,000 is in New York County, NY, Clerk's certification

Mower Lumber Company was ----  193

The exact reasons for the sale of the Cass property has not been located in the sources available to the author, but WVP&P was in the paper business, not the lumber business, and the wood suitable for pulp had been almost entirely gone from the Cheat Mountain timber land for a number of years.  Also, operating an aging lumber facility would take financial resources from the company’s major business.  The pressures on the company that came with the involvement of the United States in World War II may have played a role in the decision to sell Cass.
The new owner had the misfortune to have two of the locomotives in accidents during the first six months of its ownership of the operation.  Both occurred at Spruce and involved Western Maryland engines.
On October 2, 1942, Shay No. 5 was bringing a train of loaded log cars from Beaver Creek and Big Run.  

Spruce suffered a second and final death with a decision by the railroad in 1949 to move the helper engines to Slaty Fork.  A new engine terminal was built there to replace facilities at Bergoo and Spruce.  Use of diesel locomotives beginning in 1953 eliminated the need for a water facility and turning track at Spruce--


The second logging of the headwaters was completed in 1950 and timbering moved to the Back Allegheny Mountain side of Shavers Fork.  A railroad line was built from Old Spruce and eventually extended to the headwaters of Cabin Fork.205   First Fork?
During the 1950s the decline in good quality timber and business conditions caused the Cass operation to have increasing periods of shutdown.  To maintain a supply of logs, in 1951 Mower Lumber got a long-term contract from the Monongahela National Forest to cut 50,000,000 feet of timber, plus pulpwood, on 27,000 acres of federal land.  These logs were brought by truck both to the Cass mill and the Mower mill at Dailey, in Randolph County.206 
The founder - check - of the Mower Lumber Company, Frank E. Mower, died on December 11, 1956.207 
On July 18, 1957, the foundry and pattern house burned.208   find PT article
Logging in the Cabin Fork - First Fork? - headwaters was completed in 1958 and logging moved back closer to Old Spruce.  By this time the company had in use only one skidder, one loader, one of the camp trains, and two locomotives, Nos. 1 and 4.  Shay No. 6 had been sold in 1947 and No. 5 was out of service.209 
In 1959 a spur was built for a skidder set at Bald Knob.  After logging was completed at Bald Knob in the spring of 1960, the skidder was moved to Old Spruce and grading began on a new spur from Old Spruce to a tract of virgin timber at the head of Leatherbark Creek that had not been cut in the initial operations on the mountain.  However, rails were never laid on this grade, as on June 25, 1960, the employees found the following notice posted:

The first large sale of company land following closure was made in September 1973 when 6,696 acres on the headwaters of the Shavers Fork were sold to Snowshoe Company for a new economic use of the land, a ski resort.  In October 1982, 2,647 acres adjoining Snowshoe on Black Run were sold for a second ski resort, Silver Creek (now part of Snowshoe).216 
Earlier in this chapter there was speculation in the article from the Inter-Mountain about what early hunters might think if they could have returned in 1910 and seen a Pullman car in their former wild hunting grounds.  Today we can speculate what the loggers of 1910 might think if they could return to the mountain today.  They would see something very familiar in the Cass Scenic Railroad but one can only wonder at their reactions to Snowshoe Mountain Resort.   
The balance of its property was disposed of as follows:  
    • 1962  railroad right-of-way and shop to State of West Virginia
    • 1967  minerals on 5,183 acres on Cherry River to U. S. Forest Service
    • 1970  minerals on 6,037 acres on ---- to U. S. Forest Service
    • 1970  minerals on 2,282.5 acres on ----- to U. S. Forest Service
    • 1976  Cass mill tract to State of West Virginia
    • 1985  minerals on --- acres to U. S. Forest Service
    • 1985 24,078 acres to Mower Limited Partnership
    • 1987 23,941 acres to Trust for Public Land, to U. S. Forest Service the same year
    • 1988 13,586 acres to Trust for Public Land, to U. S. Forest Service the same year
    • 1991 -----Mower Limited Partnership to Elk River Land Company217

 A timbering operation as large and as long lasting as the one centered at Cass was not without accidents and employee deaths over the years.  Logging remains even today one of the more hazardous occupations.  However, one fact that stands out is the lack of any serious accidents on the many miles of railroad operated by the two companies.  Derailments, as on any logging railroad, were common, but major accidents almost nonexistent.  Particular mention must be made of the safe operation of the line from Old Spruce to Cass, with its average grade of 4.55% and sections up to - - 8.3 on earlier page -  -- %.  Safely bringing loaded trains down this grade for sixty years is a tribute to the skill of the men who handled the trains, maintained the track, and kept the equipment in repair. 
An early rider on this section of the railroad, Norman R. Price, wrote in 1903:
The railroad reaches the top of the mountain by a series of switch backs and by a grade almost as steep as an ordinary wagon road.  Of course railroading over a road so steep and full of curves is very dangerous, but the intrepid train crew thrice daily collect the heavily loaded cars and lower them to Cass, the greater part to be taken to the paper mill at Covington.  Strange to say accidents have been rather infrequent.  The impression of the man who passes over the road for the first time is that the train crew run extraordinary risks of a wreck every time a trip is made.  We advise any one seeking new sensations with a spice of danger, to take a trip over this mountain railway.  The scenery too is magnificent.218 
A safety feature on the Old Spruce/Cass line not existing on today's Cass Scenic Railroad was a siding at each switchback.  This allowed the locomotive to be moved to the downhill end of the trains between the switchbacks, preventing any cars from breaking loose and going downhill on their own.  (There is, of course, no comparison between the weight of loaded trains of logs and the passenger trains coming down the mountain today.)
Another factor was the ability of a company with the resources of WVP&P to acquire new and up-to-date equipment, rather than always looking for secondhand.  As an example, the trains were operated with air brakes from the beginning.219 
The first death of which reference has been found was of David McDonald, about age 45, on January 30, 1902.  He was sitting on the ends of the ties “at [a] well known spring just under the brow of the mountain” and hit by an engine when it went up the mountain between 4 and 5 a.m.  His body was dragged four or five hundred feet and mangled.  Two bottles of whiskey and a watch were found on the body, both undamaged.  The Corner’s Jury concluded that  Mr. McDonald was intoxicated when struck.  The newspaper account on the death commented, “The discovery of a human body, torn and mangled, with two bottles of intoxicating liquor on the body, constitute a scene of horror and ghastliness rarely met with, and should be regarded by everyone as awful warning against the accustomed use of strong drink.”220    
The person sending in news from Camp 3 reporting on Mr. McDonald’s death continued his report “We have a pigs ear near Cass that should be looked into by the officers of the law.  These vile men should be brought to justice and thus save many a soul from shame and ruin.”221
The location of this tragic event is not given in the news account.  Later sources indicate the site may have been Old Spruce and that Mr. McDonald was buried where he died.222 
Zack Dolin, 22, died on November 21, 1902, from injuries he received on November 11.  A brakeman, he was caught between two loaded log cars while attempting to couple them. News accounts vary on the exact details; one stated that the logs projected from the cars so there was only six inches between the cars while another related that the logs slipped from one car and jammed him against the other as he was making the coupling.223 
 Elliott Hiner, 28, died in an accident in the mill on August 18, 1903.  A board got caught in a saw and then was thrown, hitting Mr. Hiner across the head.  The force was such that his skull was crushed, causing death almost instantly.224  
Tragedy struck the Dolan Family again, almost exactly one year later, on November 5, 1903.  David Dolan, 24, working as conductor and a brakeman on the log train, was assisting with the application of the brakes when the brake chain on the car he was on broke.  This caused him to lose his balance and he was thrown under the wheels of the car.  Mr. Dolan died in a few minutes from the injuries.   The exact location of the accident is not clear from the various accounts, but was probably as the train was approaching Cass.225 
Mr. Dolan’s widow, Eliza, filed suit against the lumber company, alleging the company was negligent in not providing her husband with safe equipment.  She sought damages in the amount of $10,000.  The case came to trial on April 6, 1905, and ended the next day with the jury finding the company not guilty.226 
A log falling from a loader caused the death of John R. Ray, 21, on October 10, 1904.  The log slipped from the tongs and hit the unfortunate young man on the head, crushing his skull.  He lived only for about a half hour following the accident.  The location of the accident was given only as Cheat Mountain.  (The Ray Family suffered the death of a second son in a railroad-related accident almost five years later.  On June 18, 1909, George W. Ray, a C&O fireman, was fatally in injured at Clifton Forge, Virginia, when he stepped from his engine without seeing an approaching locomotive.  The engine hit him and he died within three hours.)227     
Remorse from the loss of the savings from several months’ hard work due to drink was given as the cause of the suicide of Larry Brindle, 32, in January 1905.  He returned to Camp 3 on the - - - - after losing the money in Cass.  His campmates were fearful of is intentions and attempted to keep a weapon from him.  However, about 10 p.m. on the 4th he got a knife and inflicted a neck wound.  An engine was summoned and he was rushed to the hospital at Cass, but died from loss of blood about 3 a.m. the next morning.  Mr. Brindle was buried at Cass. “The woodsmen saw to it, as usual, that one of their number should not be buried at the Commonwealth’s expense, but raised a large subscription to meet all expenses.”228   
In the article on the deaths of the eight Italian workers at Dunlevie in August 1905 by an explosion of dynamite (see Chapter X), there is reference to “an attempt that was made some weeks ago to blow up an Italian shanty on Cheat Mountain.  In this instance ten sticks of dynamite were placed under the camp and a fuse thirty-five feet long attached to it.  When discovered there was evidence that the fuse had been fired and had become extinguished within a few inches of the detonator.”  Neither the exact date nor the location of the shanty was in the article and no other references have been found on this incident.229 
A fall from a bridge under construction on November 23, 1905, dislocated the neck of Andrew Kilberg and he died the next morning.  The accident occurred on the extension of the rail line up Black Run onto the Elk River side of the mountain.  Mr. Kilberg was reported to have fallen 35 feet.  A native of Sweden, he now rests in a Pocahontas County cemetery.230 
    according to WTP, he was buried in the Galford Cemetery - check

R. R. Wilson, about 23, was killed by a falling tree on December 2, 1905, during wintry weather on the mountain.  He was the chopper of a woods gang and was in the way of the tree, cut by his partners.231  
On January 11, 1906, W. F. “Fry” Bird, 52, was killed by a train about a mile from Cass, near the crossing of the county road.  The accounts in the two Marlinton papers vary in some details, but agree that the unfortunate man had been drinking and was sitting on the track when the train approached.  A curve in the rail line prevented the engineer from seeing Mr. Bird in time to stop the train before he was hit.  The articles disagree on whether the train was coming up or down the mountain and whether Mr. Bird was killed instantly or died a short time later in Cass.232  
 A man named McBramble was killed in the woods about three miles from Spruce on either April 30 or May 1, 1906.  He attempted to stop a rolling log with his cant hook but the momentum of the log was such that it threw him a distance, breaking his neck and crushing his skull.233   
On September 21, 1906, Zacheriah(y) Taylor O’Brien, 24, was killed in an accident in the Cass yard.  He worked in the mill and was on his way to his home located above the hay barn for lunch.  There was a log train on the track and Mr. O’Brien began to climb over the couplers between two cars when the train started. He was jerked off and was run over.  (His son Albert was fatally injured by a C&O train in Durbin in 1929.234  
The end of 1908 and beginning of 1909 were marred by two fatal accidents.   On the 31st, a Swedish lumberman was killed by a falling tree at Camp 15.  The Swede, whose name was not given, was drilling a hole in a rock and probably failed to notice his danger.   On January 1 a log slipped from the tongs of a log loader at Camp 11 and hit Elza Morton.235   
There were three deaths in 1910.  
Early on January 13, O. F. Bonnell, 23, fell under a WVP&P locomotive at the Cass mill yard as he attempted to get on the engine.  Both legs were cut off.  He was brought to the hospital at Marlinton on the morning passenger train and died about 4 p.m.  Mr. Bonnell was from Salem, Virginia, and had been at Cass for only two or three months.236    
R. B. Witt, 36, a  company carpenter, fell from a scaffold on February 2 and died from a broken neck.237    need location

An Italian worker was killed at Cass on August 26, 1910, when a clay bank caved-in, breaking his neck and back.  A group was digging at a hillside and undermined it.  The earth gave way and covered three men.  Two escaped serious injury, but the third was dead when gotten out.  The brief article on the tragedy did not give the man’s name, the exact location of the cave-in, or whether the group were actually employees of the lumber company.238 
Isaac Matheson, about 45, was killed instantly when he fell under the engine of a log train on September 16, 1911.  He had been working in the woods and was coming off the mountain to go home in Ronceverte.  A former C&O employee, he was attempting to help the train crew as they were switching cars by running ahead to throw a switch.  He slipped and fell to the track and was not able to get away from the engine.239    
Antonio Pilli died on February 23, 1912, from injuries received in the mill at Spruce.240   
Somewhere between the two switchbacks, L. B. Nicely, about 38, met his death on May 3, 1912.  Nicely, a brakeman on a log train coming from Spruce to Cass, was observed by the light of his lantern performing his usual duty in throwing the switch at the first switchback.  When the train was in the second switchback his body was found on the car he was stationed to work the hand brake, lying full length with his head against the coupler.  It was assumed he had reached for the brake wheel, missed it, and fell head first between the cars, hitting his head on the coupler.  Cause of death was a broken neck.241 
A laborer named John Handby, 40, was killed in an accident at or near Spruce on July 7, 1912.  No details have been found.242      

Wesley Perkins, 21, an engine watchman at Spruce, had a fatal accident some time during the night of March 28-29, 1913.  One of his duties was to fill the oil cans on the engine and to do so had run the engine over to the sand house.   The oil barrel was on the platform and in getting out the oil he managed to pull the barrel over onto himself. His head was caught between the falling barrel and a knuckle joint on the running gear of the engine, crushing his skull.243      DR has 3/29 death date
An Italian working on the railroad grade on Elk River was drowned on October 24, 1913, near the mouth of Dry Branch.  He was attempting to cross the river on a foot log and fell in.  The river was full and swift due to heavy rain and melting snow and he was unable to get out.  The body was found half a mile below the site when he fell in.244 
Two accidental deaths occurred in the same way in 1914; both from the premature discharge of dynamite on construction projects.  
Clyde Weiford, 20, was killed on April 28.  He was part of the crew working on the excavation of a pit at the extract plant.  The dynamite was prematurely set off before Weiford and the other men in the pit got out.    Mr. Weiford was hit by a falling stone.  None of the other men were injured.245
An Italian laborer died in the construction of the “Big Cut” on June 26 by being too close to a blast when it was prematurely discharged. He was directly over the drill hole and “blown to atoms.”  The unfortunate man’s name is given name as Suddlezio Mossozie in the news account and Subblezein Mossizini in death records.  He was only 19.246 
Mike Mlokor was killed in the Elk logging woods on July 13, 1914, by a falling tree.247   
Rock (?) Monti, 19, was killed by a train on September 3, 1914.  There is no information on the site of the accident or whether he was a WVP&P employee. 248  
Randolph B. Biddle, 21, was killed on January 14, 1916, while attempting to make a coupling.  Sources on the accident disagree as to whether he was a brakeman or the fireman on the train and the location of the accident - near Spruce or at Camp 30, Cheat Bridge.249 
A cloudburst in the Elk River watershed on September 14, 1916, caused the death of one man, major damage to a camp, and much damage to the railroad.  The camp, Camp 11, was located about three miles below Slaty Fork, "was manned by by a number of Austrians who came from the mountains of Europe and  who are good woodsmen.  The camp was in charge of a splendid Austrian who was known as Frank."  The camp had a large stable for horses.  When the floodwaters arrived at the camp, it was seen that the stable was in danger of being washed away.  Mr. Frank, 30, rushed to the building to remove the horses.  While he was at the stable, a solid wall of water, reported to be fifteen feet high, and a mass of trees, stumps and debris hit the barn full force, breaking it in two in the middle.  Mr. Frank and four horses were swept away.  Two of the horses managed to escape but Mr. Frank and the other two horses drowned.  His body was not found until Saturday afternoon.250   

LB, p 81, puts Camp 11 on Leatherwood and an estimated $8000 in damage was done to the railroad; PT, 9/21/1916, cloudburst around head of three small runs on Gauley Mountain side near Poca/Web line - camp located on one of these runs;

A locomotive turned over in late September 1917 when a stringer on a bridge broke.  “The fireman jumped, but the engineer turned on a full head of steam in an attempt to get across.  However, the engine turned turtle completely and out of the cloud of steam crawled the engineer without a scratch on him”  Location, exact date, and locomotive number not given in the news story.251   
Another brakeman met his death on the WVP&P railroad on July 19, 1918.  A. Perly Cuttight, 42, was on a coal car and fell under the wheels, cutting off his head.  Location of the accident was not given in the news story.252 
There was another death on the railroad only a month later, on August 23, at Cheat Junction.  David Whitmire, about 45, crawled under a stopped train to remove a large stone from the track.  Unfortunately, the other members of the crew did not know he was there and the train moved while he was still on the track, cutting him in two.253      

Death Records have Harold J. Ware, age 2, killed on 8/7/1918, by explosion ? at Spruce 254

Noah Cline, an edgerman at the Cass mill, died on November 8, 1918, from injuries he sustained on the 7th when struck by a board.255    
Another accident at the mill was believed to have been the cause of the illness that resulted in the death of John W. Roderick, 21, on August 18, 1920.  He died in the Marlinton Hospital of meningitis.  Other than receiving an injury to his head while working at the mill, no further details about the accident have been found.256    
James E. Iseli, log train brakeman, was seriously injured on December 29, 1919, when logs got loose on a car, threw him off, and then rolled over him.  Mr. Iseli died on the 31st.257  

Death records 1904 Book, has _____ H. Rexrode, killed by falling limb on 5/25/1920, place of death given as Slaty Fork, age 30,            check PT

Oliver Gregory, 23, was fatally injured on December 13, 1920, by a falling limb while working on Elk River.   His skull was crushed and he was knocked over a cliff by the force of the blow.  Although he was brought to the Marlinton Hospital, where surgery was performed, he was too greatly injured to survive and died on the 14th.258 

about 1920 autoclave exploded in extract plant and scalded Emmanuel Tyson to death  259
    LB, p 161m source is interview with Ether Tyson 11/18/1985

 William Gibson, Jr., 26, was killed on June 20, 1922, while working on the log train on Elk.  He was caught between the cars while making a coupling.  Exact location of the accident is not known.260    
The year 1923 saw four deaths from train operations. 
On January 25 Page C. McCloud, 29, was killed while working on a log train as a brakeman.  He was on the rear of the train and while tightening the brakes above the second switchback, the brake handle broke, throwing him under the train.261      
John Kincaid, 21, a brakeman, was “run over by cars” on August 30.  Accident occurred at or near Spruce but no other details are known.262   
Aeorland Hamrick, 18, lost both legs when he fell under a train on the morning of October 12. He was working on a track crew and was attempting to get on a moving train.  He was hurried to the hospital at Marlinton but died in the afternoon.  The location of the accident is not known.263  

Asa Simmons, a section foreman on the GC&E, was killed near Whittaker Falls.    No details given  PT 2/18/1926  check Webster paper    Leatherbark, p 83, sourcing PT, has Otts Simmons, section foreman at Rose Run, killed at Blue Springs on Elk, when he was going around No. 13, lost his footing, and fell under the train.  265

On April 21, 1926, Clarence H. Tacy, 19, was working at the top of the silo at the extract plant that held the ground bark.   He was found to be missing.  The flow of ground bark from the silo was shunted away from the autoclave and in a while his body came out of the chute.  It was thought that Mr. Tacy had stepped on what he thought was the top of the dust but instead it was only a crust with a void below.266   
On December 17, 1926, a group of employees were riding in a boxcar coming in from work.  The car left the track and turned over several times.  One of the men, Fred W. Shelton, about 45, was severely injured and died on the 18th at the hospital in Ronceverte.  Neither the location of the accident nor what caused the boxcar to derail were given in the news story.267 
Jarvis Newsome, 39, died  in the hospital at Marlinton on February 14, 1927, from injuries received a few hours earlier in the woods on Elk River.  A log fell on him white he was hooking tongs.  His skull was crushed at the base of the brain and he had other injuries.268     
The incline at the Hopkins Mine was the site of a fatal accident to Jasper Varner, 73, on November 27, 1929.  In some way he got caught in the machinery and was terribly mangled, dying immediately.269  
David James, about 35, was struck by a log and killed on June 22, 1931.  He was working on a skidder near Slaty Fork.270    
James C. Copen, 49, was killed in the mill yard on May 15, 1932, when a slide board broke and threw him off a lumber pile.  His neck was broken in the fall.
Leatherbark, p 143 - look for newspaper article   In Loving Memory, Book 4, p 47, has death date June 15- buried in Hilltop (Oliver) Cemetery 271

The Cass mill yard was the site of a fatal accident on March 19, 1937.  During train shifting operations Joseph F. Knight, 49, a brakeman, fell between two moving cars and the wheels of the front trucks of one car passed over him before the train could be stopped.  He was instantly killed.272 
Frank Zebre, 43, drowned in a flood on Elk River on February 11, 1938.  He was employed as a coal miner.  He was seen to stumble and fall from bridge.  Mr. Zebra's body was found the following day, nine miles downstream from where he fell.  He was from Mariana, Pennsylvania.273  
     was he a WVP&P employee?

Two men suffered fatal injuries in working with a skidder on Shavers Fork in early 1941.  
James S. McNeely, 28, died on April 19 from head and chest injuries received two days earlier.  He was injured when the big cable broke about a half mile from the skidder, rolled back along the skid road, and hit him at the landing.274   
The other accident victim was Earl Barlow, 28, who died on April 28 from head, chest, other injuries received earlier the same day.275 
Herbert S. Galford, 30, of Cass, was killed at 8:30 p.m. on January 1, 1943, near Cass by being run over by the train.  A brakeman, he is believed to have fallen between the cars.”276   when does quote start?
Dave Sharp, 9/24/2001, put this accident on Slaty Fork - Hubert was a brakeman and engineer on the train was his brother Clyde.  “when he got to Slatyfork his brother was missing.  They took an engine back up there and found his brother dead where a wheel ran over him.” 

A fractured skull was the cause of death for Coleman Wilson on April 24, 1945.  He was a woodsman but no accident details have been found.277 
Henry N. Simmons, 64, was injured on June 26, 1946, from being hit by a falling tree.  He died the next day.278    check ILM

James B. Cassell, 50, killed in accident on the log train on May 9, 1948.279  
LB, p 91, states Cassell went to sleep along the track while walking from Cass to the woods - hit in the head by a knuckle joint on the engine - Ivan Clarkson interview, 7/2/1983 

A fall from a lumber dock on April 15, 1955, caused injuries from which Dewey E. Hiner, 56, died.  He was knocked from the dock by ----.  In one of the tragic coincidences that sometime occur, a father and son were the first and last to be killed at the mill.  Mr. Hiner’s father, Ellett, was killed in 1903.280 
On December 19, 1924, a young mill worker named Keyser lost part of an arm at the Cass mill.  His arm was caught in an electric peeling machine and completely severed below the elbow.281  


Several sources record a log train running away on the Left Fork of Leatherwood Creek, with Shay No. 6 being the motive power.  None give the date for the incident nor the exact location.  The train, with a heavy load of logs, started running away two miles above the Forks of the creek.  Sources also disagree on whether the engine left the track and went into the creek or just the cars.  The crew is reported to have jumped the train with no injuries.282

Not all deaths were the result of accidents; some were the result of the violent side of human nature.
On August 26, 1906, William Davison, about 28, was shot and fatally wounded by L. H. Cash at Spruce.  Cash was the foreman at the pulp mill.  According to the news account, the shooting was in self-defense.  Mr. Davison had fights with both a younger brother of Cash and then Cash himself.  Later in the day Mr. Davison threatened to kill Cash and when he approached the mill foreman, Cash fired three shots near the other man.  Mr. Davison kept coming and Cash then shot him, giving him a wound from which he died on the 28th.283     
    check court records - no indictment of Cash in Oct 1906 or Jan 1907 grand jury reports - article in Randolph Enterprise, 8/30/1906, victim referred to as Davis - has 27th as death date - not as positive towards Cash - need full article

The murder of Walter Alvis, age about 24, occurred at Spruce on May 31, 1908.  He died at the hands of a group of Italian workers following an effort to quell a disturbance at one of the shanties occupied by these employees.  Joe Hannah, Superintendent of the peeling mill, who had been asked by some Italians to go to Shanty No. 20 to stop a fight among those living there.  Mr. Hannah was injured in the effort. 
Four of the men alleged to have been involved in the murder were taken into custody immediately following the incident, three were captured at Mingo on June 1, and another near Boyer the same day.  However, the one considered to be the most guilty of the crime, Attiro Brintonio, was not arrested until July 20 at a camp on Cheat Mountain.  He escaped into the woods after the murder and although chased by men with dogs and seen a number of times, eluded capture.  His capture in July came after it was noted that Italian laborers at the camp would carry provisions out at night.  A watch was kept and finally Brintonio began to come into the camp at night, where he was arrested.  S. T. Ruckman was the arresting officer.284
On June 3 the Grand Jury handed down indictments against Brintonio, and four of the men in custody, Nogoli Devis, Nogoli Mozzetti, Girlo Gembotte, and Belordino Tiggonelle.  It was charged that they "feloniously, willfully, maliciously, deliberately and unlawfully did slay kill and murder one Walter Alvis."285  
Two additional felony indictments were made against Brintonio, but the case files for them have not been located and so these charges are not known.    
The trial of the four men in custody was held on June 5 and 6 and resulted in their conviction for murder in the second degree.  Judge W. R. Bennett was reported to have declared that he believed the verdict should have been murder in the first degree for at least two of the defendants.  He gave them all the maximum sentence, eighteen years in prison at hard labor.286
According the newspaper account of the testimony at the trial, Hannah and another man, L. H. Long, went to the shanty in an effort to stop a fight among the workers.  This upset the workers, who then turned their anger towards Hannah and Long.  The two men then went to the office and one of the workers, Antonio Morzigoli, came to apologize for his actions.  However, he and Hannah got into a confrontation and a shot was fired.  This brought the workers out of their shanty “like a lot of angry hornets.”  Supposedly Brintonio (who was still a fugitive at the time of this trial) had been urging the group to have it out with the Americans.  In the course of the confrontation there, Mr. Alvis, who had not been involved, came along and was attacked and killed by some of the workers.
The defendants swore that they had taken no part in the killing and placed the full blame on Brintonio.  Witnesses were presented who stated at least two of the defendants were not at the scene of the murder.  James Mirrise, a foreman for Flint, Erving and Stoner Lumber Company, acted as interpreter for the defendants.287
The trial of Brintonio was held on October 7 and 8, 1908, and resulted in his conviction for murder in the first degree.  Evidence was presented on the 7th and the case went to the jury at 10 a.m. on the 8th.  “The jury was out but a short time and brought back in a verdict of murder in the first degree, recommending that the punishment be confinement in the penitentiary for life.”  Judge ----- accepted the jury's recommendation and Brintonio was sentenced to life in prison.288
A separate indictment on June 3 was against Romano Ortenzio for murder.  He was not tried until January 22, 1909, and was found guilty of second degree murder.  His sentence was eight years in prison at hard labor.   Ortenzio had been a major prosecution witness on events of May 31.  In the trial on June 5 and 6 he had sworn that all four defendants had taken part in the attack on Mr. Alvis.289
Morzigoli was indicted on June 4 on two felonies.  One alleged that he "upon one Joe Hannah an assault did make with the intent then and there maliciously, feloniously and unlawfully to maim disfigure and kill him."  The file on the second charge has not been located.  He appeared in court on October 8, 1908, and entered a plea of guilty to both offenses.  Morzigoli was the one who had gone to apologize, saying that he had been drinking.  He was sentenced to one year in the county jail at hard labor on highways or other work on both charges and fined $200 and $50.  There was no indication if the jail time was to be served concurrently or consecutively.290
Although news reports refer to nine being arrested, only seven were indicted and tried.  One of those arrested, no name given, was released in June 1908 for want of evidence against him.291
the 6/18/08 PT that reported on the one released state 3 are more in jail to be tried in October - check

Another act of violence occurred on May 28, 1910, when an Austrian worker, named --- Zoozoo, was murdered in a robbery attempt.  He was shot four times.  The incident occurred at Camp 17 near Cheat Bridge.  One of the alleged attackers, Ed Campbell, was arrested but another, Frenchy Phillips, escaped.292 
need to check Randolph County records

George Williams, a GC&E engineer, was charged with the shooting death of Thaddeus Hall, a brakeman on the C&O.   He was shot on May 7 - in newspaper articles - May 9 - death records - 1917, and killed about 9:20 p.m. in Cass.  Mr. Hall was a brakeman on the freight train that operated between Ronceverte and Cass and spent every other night in Cass.  He was found shot four times.  The following day Williams was arrested and charged with Mr. Hall’s murder.  The reason given for the murder in the news reports was the victim’s alleged affair with Mrs. Williams.293
 However, in his request for bond, Williams noted health problems and "That the killing of the said deceased was under such conditions and provication [sic], as in the opinion of your petitioner he was absolutely justified in doing what he did, and that the killing was under such circumstances as would absolutely preclude, under the law, a jury from returning a verdict, which would carry with it, capital punishment."294
Williams was not alone in this opinion.  In the order granting his release on $20,000 bond, there was the statement "and by the admission of the State of West Virginia through her prosecuting attorney, W. A. Bratton, that the State does not expect, at the trial of said cause, to obtain a conviction for a capital crime . . ."295
However, on July 3 the Pocahontas County Grand Jury charged that Williams "feloniously, willfully, maliciously, deliberately and unlawfully did slay, kill and murder one Thaddie Hall . . ."  The trial was not held until April 5, 1918.  It took only the one day and the jury found Williams not guilty.296 
The above are the acts of violence most directly related to the logging operations.  Sadly, the town of Cass was not without its violent side and several more pages could be used to giving account of incidents that occurred in town.  See On Beyond Leatherbark and 100 Years and Still Counting - The Town of Cass, WV for community history, both good and bad.

To operate one of the largest logging railroad systems in the eastern United States, West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company needed a roster of capable locomotives.  With one exception, the company had only Shay type engines at its Cass operation.  Although the distances from the ends of the lines on Elk River and at Bemis on the Shavers Fork were long, the grades involved did not give the company the option of using faster rod engines, as did the Cherry River Boom and Lumber Company on its extensive rail line system out of Richwood.  The engines that remained on the roster for any length of time were among the largest Shays produced by Lima Locomotive. 
For those locomotives that did not come to Cass new, the date in parenthesis is when they were first used at Cass.  

No. 1       Shay        CN 630  1900        40 tons         2 trucks297
        Shay        CN 662  1901        25 tons         2 trucks298   
    (leased from M. P. Bock Lumber Company)
No. 2       Shay        CN 694  1902        50 tons         3 trucks299
    (returned to Lima in 1904)      
No. 3       Shay        CN 754  1903        65 tons         3 trucks300  
No. 2       Shay        CN 836  1904        65 tons         3 trucks301  
No. 4       Shay        CN 926  1904        75 tons         3 trucks302 
No. 5       Shay        CN 1503 1905        80 tons         3 trucks303 
No. 8       Shay        CN 2583 1912        100 tons        3 trucks304 
No. 6 (9)   Climax      CN 534  1904 (1913) 40-45 tons  2 trucks305
No. 7       Shay        CN 2563 1912 (1913) 42 tons         2 trucks306  
No. 6       Shay        CN 1907 1907 (1914) 70 tons         3 trucks307  
No. 10      Shay        CN 2765 1914        70 tons         3 trucks308
No. 11      Shay        CN 2799 1914        100 tons        3 trucks309  
No. 1       Shay        CN 1519 1905 (1915) 65 tons         3 trucks310  
No. 12      Shay        CN 3156 1921        154 tons        3 trucks311 
No. 13      Shay        CN 1586 1906 (1924) 150 tons        4 trucks312
No. 14      Shay        CN 2248 1910 (1924) 150 tons        4 trucks313  
No. 4       Shay        CN 3189 1922 (1943) 70 tons         3 trucks314

The purchase of the Dewing Tract included a “logging engine,” which was a Shay, either CN 31 or CN 94.  However, this engine, small and narrow gauge, was quickly disposed of. 

The original mill 

Mill constructed after the fire 

Today, the most important legacy of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company and the Mower Lumber Company is the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park.
Almost as soon as Mower announced the closing of its operation at Cass, there was interest in saving the railroad and turning it into a scenic railroad.  The interest was both in the economic future of the the area and in preserving a portion of the history of the state.  A detailed history of the Cass Scenic Railroad is beyond the scope of this book, but a summary needs to be made.
Those wanting the scenic railroad first had to obtain the support of the West Virginia Legislature. Time was of the essence, since Mower had sold the railroad and its equipment to Midwest-Raleigh Steel Company for scrapping soon after closing the mill.  This work was underway in -----

Success came with the purchase of the railroad, three locomotives, ten log cars, and the shop by the state in June 1962.316    
On June 15, 1963, the Cass Scenic Railroad made its first public run, from Cass to Whittaker. The train was made up of log cars converted to passengers cars and Shay No. 4, the only one of the three that could pass inspection.  Public interest in the state’s newest state park was great (probably to the dismay of some state officials) and 23,106 tickets were sold that summer.  The fact that 1963 was West Virginia’s centennial year helped bring people to the state and its newest state park.

Funds to rebuild the railroad were received in 1966 and the work was completed in time for the 1968 season.  This extended the ride to Bald Knob and the first public trip to the state’s second highest point was made on May 20.  (Modern technology has recently determined that Bald Knob is the third highest point in the state, not the the second.)

Following the abandonment of the Western Maryland line to Durbin in 1984, the Cass Railroad lost it rail link to the outside world.  This link was restored in --- with the construction of new rail line between Old Spruce and Spruce.

Since 1963 the locomotive fleet at Cass has grown from three to --- in 2012 (and several others have come and gone).  This collection, used on logging railroads in West Virginia and other states, includes not only Shays but one example each of the Heisler and Climax geared steam locomotives.
One of the most important acquisitions was Western Maryland Shay 6, the last Shay locomotive built.  Since it was taken out of service in 1953, it had been on display at the Baltimore and Ohio museum in Baltimore, Maryland.  In 1980 a swap was arranged between the museum and the state.  CSRR Shay No.1 is now on display at the museum and Shay No. 6 is pulling trains up Cheat Mountain.
Details on the CSRR engines are in Chapter XVIII.
Unfortunately, except for the three engines and some log cars, all of the remaining logging equipment in Mower’s possession in 1960 was scrapped.  
Although there would be little left of the Cass operation, except perhaps a small community, had the State of West Virginia not acquired the railroad, it must be said that the state has not been the perfect protector of the historic fabric of the site.  Either through carelessness or lack of proper care, much of the historic material has disappeared.  Major losses have been:
• Camp train allowed to rot away 
• Shop burned on July 23, 1972
• Planing mill collapsed during the winter of 1974-75
• Depot burned on May 5, 1975
• Planing mill remains burned on August 20, 1978
• Sawmill burned on February 14, 1982
• Unbelievable as it may seem, the contractor for the new rail connection between Old Spruce and Spruce was allowed to cover over part of the Spruce town site with the waste material from the project
• The most recent example is the Cass School building that was allowed to deteriorate until it partly fell in on ---.  It has since been removed.

However, this section should not end on a negative note and it must be stressed that because of the creation of the Cass Scenic Railroad considerably more was gained than has been lost.  By riding up the mountain behind one of the Shay locomotives, people today can get some idea of ----
Shay No. 5  had its 100th birthday in 2005 and its 100 years of almost continuous operation on Cheat Mountain were properly celebrated during the 2005 season.  The West Virginia Legislature named No. 5 the Official State Steam Locomotive.

The other remaining part of the logging operation that began in 1900 up Leatherbark Run is the railroad from Bergoo, on the Elk River, through Slaty Fork and Spruce, down the Shavers Fork to Bemis.  The production of coal in the Bergoo area kept this a very busy piece of railroad into the 1970s. However, a decrease in the number of mines to just one in the early 1990s caused the Chessie System to request permission to abandon its line from --- through Elkins to Bergoo in ---.  Permission was granted ---.  The last coal train ran on December 29, 1994.  
However, the state of West Virginia purchased the line in September 1997 to retain the rail access to the coal reserves still remaining in Webster County.  Renamed the West Virginia Central Railroad, the   line was leased to a tourist railroad, the Durbin and Greenbrier Valley Railroad, which had been operating a train on a short portion of the former C&O Greenbrier Branch.  The D&GV expanded its tourist train operations with trains from Belington, Elkins and Cheat Bridge.  Freight service is also provided to the Elkins area by the D&GV.  However, at this writing the former logging rail line from Spruce to Bergoo remains out of service.317
   track from Cass to Durbin, badly damaged in 1985 flood repaired and reopened for service in - - - -