Pre-Civil War – 1879
As related in the previous chapter, the earliest known use of the river to move logs began in the late 1840s. However, log driving did not begin in a major way until after the Civil War and the various economic/technical developments outlined in earlier chapters. St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company had its first successful drive in 1874 and was joined in log driving by the Greenbrier Lumber Company in 1879. What little is known about these first drives is given in Chapter V.
1880
There were two drownings associated with the movement of logs on the river in this year’s drive. Rain in late January and early February raised the water and log driving got underway the first of February. On March 17, 1880, a raft of logs lodged against an island near Callison’s Mill, below Anthony. In the attempt to dislodge the raft, three men were thrown into the water. Two were able to get back on, but the third, _ Gum, was left clinging to a small tree. Adam Merritt and Lee Wright attempted to get to Gum in a boat, but it overturned and they were carried away. Gum remained in the tree all night and was rescued the next morning by Charles Callison. The bodies of the two would be rescuers were not found until the next week. Mr. Merritt’s body was found on the 22nd about four miles downstream and Mr. Wright’s body on the 24th, five miles away from the site of the tragedy.1
There is no indication in the news accounts of the accident which company was the owner of the logs in the rafts or if the two drowned men were members of the raft crew or local residents. (This is one of the very few references found to logs being placed in rafts before being floated down the river.)
1881
Only one reference has been found for an 1881 log drive. In April it was reported that 350,000 feet of timber came into the boom at Ronceverte, mostly for the Greenbrier Lumber Company. Low water conditions were reported for this year.2
1882
High water in January and early February 1882 allowed a large amount of timber from Pocahontas County to be floated into the boom of the Greenbrier Lumber Company. This was the last drive for this company, as it sold out to SLB&M in July 1882.3
John F. Bowes and John F. Weaver got a contract from E. H. Camp and D. E. Notley in August 1881 for cutting, peeling, hauling, driving, and delivery of timber on Anthonys Creek. Camp and Notley were two of the men who acquired the St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company that year. No references have been found to any results of that agreement and Bowes and Weaver were released from the contract in April 1882. As part of the release from the contract, Bowes and Weaver transferred to SLB&M tools and camp equipment including seven gallons of syrup, nine tins of —, thirty blankets, fourteen bed ticks, nineteen earthen plates, two driving boats, and various tools.4
1883
In 1882 St. Lawrence gave the first of many logging contracts to Abner E. Smith, who came to the Greenbrier Valley from Indiana County, Pennsylvania. Since the new owners of the lumber company were from the same county, Smith may have previously been a contractor for them. The contract was for cutting several sites on Deer Creek near Green Bank. By early December 1882 about 5,000,000 feet had been cut.5
Later in the same month it was reported “The white pine forests of this county [Pocahontas] are fading rapidly before the heavy forces of the the St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company. No less than 75 men are at work, and the tall pines are swept away as if by a hurricane.”6
High water in February 1883 was reported to have brought thousands of logs down the river from Pocahontas County. Also arriving at Ronceverte were a number of rafts of walnut logs.7
1884
No definite details have been located on a log drive in 1884. Smith was again cutting timber on Deer Creek and there was a report, in June 1882, on logging on Anthonys Creek, so it would seem reasonable to assume a drive was held. However, no news references to a drive this year have been found.8
One source refers to white pine being taken out of Rosin Run (- – – -) in 1884. Another gives John Driscol having a contract with SLB&M for timber on Cummings Creek, “about 1884.”9
1885
In preparation for the 1885 log drive, Driscol moved his lumbering operation to the Dunmore area. During the cutting season, the loggers were reported to have cut about 15,000,000 feet of white pine and 1,000,000 feet of hemlock on Deer and Sitlington Creeks. In April and May about 13,000,000 feet of logs were floated to Ronceverte.10
It is often related that lumbermen of this period were well fed. One confirmation of this comes from a report on SLB&M in July 1884. The writer noted that the company employed about 150 men in the logging camps during the winter, “and a better fed lot of workmen cannot be found in the United States.” “There are supplies ever at hand, and two beeves are killed each week, so that fresh meat may be found every day.” The writer quotes the company president (John Driscol) as saying, “I sometimes have to work the men with very little rest for 48 hours, and the best way to keep them in good humor is to feed them well. If I did not do so I could do nothing with them.”11
1886
The Cumberland Lumber Company conducted its first drive in 1886. The timber for the drive was acquired in July 1885 and was located on Middle Mountain between the North Fork of Anthonys Creek and its main branch. Its camp was under the direction of Daniel O’Connell and was located on the North Fork in One Mile Hollow, about four miles from its mouth.12
After the logs had been moved to Anthonys Creek, the rain needed to move them on to the river was late in coming. While the men were waiting for high water, one of the crew, Frank Courtney, of Bangor, Maine, and a college athlete, organized activities such as boxing, racing, etc. The weather was warm enough in March to swim and there was a swimming race from the camp to Lowry’s Mill Post Office (now Neola) on a “head tide” from the splash dam on North Fork. James Monday was the winning swimmer. In April a 24 mile marathon from the camp to White Sulphur Springs was held with four entrants. Alex Stuart as the winner of the $25 purse with a time of two hours, 48 minutes.13
In 1885 SLB&M gave a logging contract to Smith to cut the timber on a 3,300 acre tract on Thomas Creek, known as the McCutcheon Tract (now part of Seneca State Forest). To operate this timber Smith made the first use of a steam locomotive in Greenbrier Valley logging. The small engine, called “Jim,” moved logs from the cutting site to the bank of Sitlington Creek. (See Chapter VII for more information on this locomotive.)14
A news report from Dunmore in February stated that the “lumbermen have the logs almost ready for the drive down the Greenbrier River.”15
No information has been found on when any of the drives were completed.
1887
Although, there may been timbering in the Knapps Creek earlier, probably the first log drive down this creek was in the spring of 1887. The logs for the drive were cut by Driscol near Huntersville.16
The Beaver Lick Lumber Company began the cutting of the timber it owned in the Laurel Run (which Laurel – – – -) watershed for the 1887 drive. Contractors for the work were James A. Whiting and A. F. Denning. Their first project in preparation for the timbering was the construction of a tramway in August 1886 and they were the second logging operators to use a locomotive in the white pine woods. At the end of the year the company was reported to have a large number of logs at its landing.17
Smith continued cutting timber on the McCutcheon tract during the 1886-87 logging season but no reference to his drive has been located.
The river drive took place in February and 13,000,000 feet were in the booms by early March.18
O’Connell was again cutting on Anthonys Creek for Cumberland Lumber Company and his drive was reported to be have gotten as far as Alvon by early May.19
In April 1887 the Pocahontas County Grand Jury indicted SLB&M for obstructing a public road with its logs. The grand jurors found that in December 1886 the company “unlawfully and without lawful authority did knowingly and willfully obstruct, injure and destroy the public road called and known as the road leading from Dunmore to what is known as Stony Bottom, at or near what is known as the last or lower ford of Sitlington Creek . . .” In June the company was found guilty as charged by a jury and fined $25 with $52.25 in costs.20
A news account, also in April, stated that “this corporation [SLB&M] has been the subject of much complaint latterly on account of its disregard for public property. . . . This spring its ark was anchored under the Marlinton bridge and all night the sparks from stoves went pouring up through the bridge.” (The bridge was a wooded covered bridge at this time.)21
Footnotes
1 GI, 2/19/1880, 3/25/1880
2 GI, 4/21/1881; The Virginias, February 1882, p 293 GI, 2/9/18824 GCDB 33, p 197, 4/22/1882, contract date given as 8/2/1881;The Virginias, September 1881,
5 GI, 12/7/1882; PT, 5/31/1928, 8/9/1928, 10/6/1949
6 GI, 12/14/1882
7 GI, 3/1/1883
8 PT, 8/9/1928; GI, 5/24/1883
9 History of Pocahontas County, 1981, p 70; Smith, Commerce and Industry (—–)
10 The Virginias, August 1884, p 136 (from the Highland Recorder), July 1885, p —
11 The Virginias, July 1884, p 119 (from the Northwestern Lumberman, July 5, 1884)
12 GCBD 37, p 272, 7/15/1885; PT, 2/27/1930
13 PT, 2/27/1930
14 PT, 8/9/1928
15 PT, 2/18/1886
16 PT, 3/27/1896
17 PT, 8/19/1886; GI, 1/6/1887; this Laurel Run is the Greenbrier River tributary
18 GI, 2/17/1887, 3/17/1887
19 GI, 4/28/1887, 5/5/1887
20 PCCC, State of West Virginia vs. The St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company, indictment in case file, Common Law Order Book 5, p 254, 4/6/1887, p 261, 6/20/1887
21 GI, 4/14/1887
1888
Cutting took place in several locations in preparation for the 1888 log drive.
Whiting and Denning were again cutting on Laurel Run for Beaver Lick Lumber Company. In January it was reported they were hauling 500 logs a day on their tramroad to a landing on the river. They had finished cutting by early February and were ready to make their drive before the month was out.22
Their drive, containing 10,000,000 feet, was at the booms on March 21.23
For the third logging season O’Connell was cutting on the North Fork of Anthonys Creek for Cumberland Lumber Company. By mid-February he had most of his logs below the mouth of North Fork and by the middle of next month, his drive, made up of 5,000,000 feet, was out of the creek and at Keister’s Mill.24
A third drive was conducted by a crew under C. W. Atherson. It is not certain, but the logs were probably cut in the Huntersville area. This drive was at Bird’s Mill with 5,000,000 feet in mid-March and was still in the river in mid-May.25
Smith was still cutting timber in the McCutcheon Tract but again no reference to his drive this year has been found.
1889
For the third logging season Whiting and Denning operated on Laurel Run, beginning work in May 1888. On December 4 one of their employees, G. W. Hill, was hurt on the tramway. A brakeman, he lost his balance while moving over the logs to adjust the brakes, jumped off and broke his leg. Perhaps this was the first railway related injury in Pocahontas County.26
In late January Whiting and Denning had 10,000,000 feet at their landing on the river and were building the needed arks and bateaux for the drive. The landing was reported to cover two acres with logs stacked in tiers, twelve to fifteen feet high. Their logs were at Ronceverte by mid-April.27
O’Connell cut timber for the Cumberland Lumber Company on Anthonys Creek again, in the Columbia Sulphur Spring area. As the W&D drive was getting to Ronceverte in April, O’Connell was waiting for high water in Anthonys Creek.28
O’Connell ended up making four drives this season. He had 7,000,000 feet ready to move to Ronceverte, but was notified by SLB&M, who did the sawing of Cumberland’s logs, not to bring more than 5,000,000 feet. After floating 3,000,000 feet in April, O’Connell was instructed to drive 1,000,000 more feet in May and a month later another 1,000,000 feet was put into the river. In a later lawsuit, O’Connell claimed when the last drive was made, “there was no good tide in the river, and the work of driving was very great, in fact it amounted to almost hauling the logs down the river bed for the last ten miles.” In October another 2,500,000 feet were driven to the booms.29
Driscol had a drive in late May, passing Droop Mountain on the 29th. High water on the 31st helped get the logs to Ronceverte. However, this high water also caused problems for St. Lawrence, breaking the boom with the release of 5-600,000 feet of logs, washing out splash dams used by Smith and part of his railroad, and taking out a splash dam on Anthonys Creek.30
It is assumed Driscol was cutting on Knapps Creek. (A post office named Driscol was established in 1890, at what is now Minnehaha Springs.)31
Smith spent his fourth winter cutting the McCutcheon Tract. He completed his logging by the end of January 1889 and moved his crew to his ark, ready to move with first high water. However, his drive did not receive any news mention for the fourth year.32
1890
There are references to logs being cut in four areas for the 1890 driving season.
Smith had his crew back at work in July 1889 for his final season cutting in the McCutcheon tract for SLB&M. The work was completed in mid-January and his drive started on February 15. The drive got as far as Clover Creek on the 17th, before briefly hanging up. By early March Smith had his logs has far as Falling Springs (Renick).33
Part of the timber acquired by Cumberland Lumber Company in 1888 was near Dunmore and O’Connell opened a camp at Glade Hill on Sitlington Creek ( — miles from Dunmore) in September 1889. His drive passed Marlinton on March 23. (In an 1899 court deposition, O’Connell stated this drive was made in only fourteen days and was the fastest drive on the river to that date.)34
In the summer of 1889 SLB&M acquired three tracts of land, totaling 2,095 acres, in the area around the Forks of the Greenbrier. In August the company had Driscol cutting near Travellers Repose. His drive, one of the few to come from this far upstream, passed Buckeye on February 22.35
Whiting and Denning were back at work on Laurel Run in August 1889 with fifteen miles of slides. They had all their logs to their landing at the river by early March; their log drive, reported to contain several million feet, was in the booms in late March.36
This is the last drive with any reference to the Beaver Lick Lumber Company or Whiting and Denning working together. The company sold its railroad to the Cumberland Lumber Company in April 1890 and its property in 1899 and 1900 to Whiting, who was acting as agent for John McGraw.
1891
For the 1891 driving season, logs were cut for Cumberland Lumber Company on Spice Run and for St. Lawrence on Anthonys Creek, Spice Run, and Knapps Creek. Timber was also cut on Sitlington Creek this season.
After completing the contract for the McCutcheon Tract timber, Smith took a contact from SLB&M to cut timber on Meadow Creek, a tributary to Anthonys Creek, for the 1890-91 logging season. He began work in early May 1890. By the end of January he had finished his winter’s cutting and was waiting the spring rise. In late February Smith was reported to have left Alvon with 5,000,000 feet.37
O’Connell had contracts with both Cumberland Lumber Company and St. Lawrence for logging timber on Spice Run for the 1891 and 1892 drives.
Under a July 1890 contract with Cumberland, O’Connell was to cut, peel, and deliver to the booms all the company’s white pine on Spice Run. The logs were to be cut into lengths of 10 2/12, 12 2/12, and 14 2/12 feet, and other lengths as directed by the company. For the work the contract called for him to be paid $5 per thousand feet with payments as the work progressed: $1 when the logs were cut; $1 when skidded; $1 when put in the creek or river; and the balance when delivered to the booms. The contract also gave O’Connell the use of the railroad equipment that had been purchased from the Beaver Lick Lumber Company, at a charge of $0.20 per thousand feet hauled on it, whether Cumberland’s timber or timber owned by other parties.38
The next month O’Connell and St. Lawrence signed an agreement for the cutting of that company’s white pine and poplar timber on Spice Run. For the 1891 drive O’Connell was to cut not less than 2,000,000 feet (nor more without company permission) and cut the residue for the 1892 drive. The contract called for the logs to be delivered to the river in time for St. Lawrence’s early spring drive from further up the river. If he missed getting the logs in the river in time for the drive from above, O’Connell would have to drive the logs until he overtook the company drive, at his expense. He got a slightly better deal on payment in this contract, $5.25 per thousand feet. Payment was to be made: $1 when the logs were cut; $1 when skidded; $0.75 when put in Spice Run; and the residue when put in the river. He was also to be paid $1,000 as each mile of railroad was constructed, but he was not to build more railroad each season than needed. Logs were not to be put in the river until the ice was gone.
The contract also had sections on cutting the timber into lengths of 12 2/12, 14 2/12, and 16 2/12 feet, or other lengths as directed, not exceeding 20 feet; stamping each end of the logs with not less than five stamp marks; and for the timber cutting to be done in a “workmanlike manner.”
SLB&M also agreed to drive the logs to be cut by O’Connell for the Cumberland Lumber Company for the 1891 and 1892 drives on Oldham and Spice Runs, between these two runs, or put in the river below Spice Run, providing they were in the river in time for the upriver drive to arrive. The charge for moving these logs to the booms was $0.35 per thousand feet.39
In August O’Connell was reported to have the railroad under construction on Spice Run. “He will haul a large amount of pine timber to the river by steam power from the head of said Run and Little Creek during the coming fall and winter.”40
A problem of some type caused O’Connell to miss the log drive as it came down the river in the spring of 1891. He requested SLB&M to stop the drive until his logs could be included and this was formalized in a written agreement in early March. In the agreement the company expressed a desire to help O’Connell by stopping the drive and, in return, the contractor agreed to pay a reasonable compensation.41
According to SLB&M records, O’Connell fell a little short of the two million feet of logs required in the contract for the 1891 drive – he is credited with stocking 1,868,163 feet in the company’s account with him. For Cumberland, O’Connell cut and drove to the booms about 4,000,000 feet of logs in 1891, from both Spice and Oldham Runs.42
SLB&M opened a camp on Knapps Creek about two miles above Huntersville in August 1890, to cut a tract of timber on Knapps Creek and Browns Mountain. Foreman for the logging on the creek was John Clyde Kinports, son of SLB&M stockholder Porter Kinports. By Christmas the company had eight to ten thousand logs in a pile about a mile and a half above Huntersville. By mid-February, almost all of the logs, coming to million or more feet, were out of Knapps Creek and in the river.43
Robert Beals came out of Sitlington Creek on February 2 with a drive of timber for —. On February 14 the floating camp arrived at Marlinton and stayed the night. “It is better than a circus to see the feats of agility played by the men, tackling immense logs on the shallows and rapids. It is doubtful whether the famous Bloundin [sic] could handle himself on rolling pine as well as many of these woodsmen can.”44
That same month a correspondent reporting on news from Marlinton expressed a thought that has been in the minds literally thousands of times by residents of this area. The writer wondered why the items to be made from the wood and sold back in Pocahontas County could “not be fixed up nearer the original stump.”45
There was one death reported during the 1891 driving season. Henry McDowell, working on the SLB&M drive, fell off a log about a mile above Bird’s mill dam on February 26 and drowned. His body was not found until the middle of April, about one and a half miles below where the accident occurred. (Bird’s mill dam was located one half mile north of Horrock, at Milepost 30.14 on the railroad.)46
Samuel Sheets was injured on the drive on February 18. He was in charge of one of the horse arks and caught his leg while trying to stop it. The leg was crushed and had to be amputated between ankle and knee.47
The log drives for 1890 and 1891 also included some poplar and ash logs cut in the Spring Creek watershed. In May 1889 St. Lawrence entered into a two year contract with Henry M. Dawson for him to purchase the logs and to deliver them to the Greenbrier River. For the 1890 drive Dawson was to deliver 1,000,000 feet with the remainder for the 1891 drive. The poplar logs were to be not less than eighteen inches at the top end and the ash logs twelve inches, with the logs to be cut in twelve, fourteen, and sixteen feet lengths. In addition to paying for the logs Dawson purchased, St. Lawrence agreed to pay him $8 per thousand feet for all logs delivered to the river.48 reread contract
In June 1899 Dawson filed a lawsuit against the company, claiming he was still owed money under the contract. According to the suit, he delivered 1,204,871 feet of logs for the 1890 drive and 1,495,129 feet for the 1891 drive. In his complaint Dawson sought $—– He —– 49
1892
For the 1892 log drive St. Lawrence began to harvest timber on Cummins Creek. In July 1891 the company signed an agreement with Smith for cutting and delivering into the booms the timber it owned on this stream. For this work the contract called for him to be paid either $5.25 per thousand feet or $5.75 per thousand feet, depending up the tract of land the timber was on. The logs were to be cut in lengths of twelve, fourteen, sixteen, eighteen, and twenty feet. If the company directed lengths between twenty and thirty feet to be cut, the contract called for an extra $1 per thousand feet. For the 1892 drive Smith was to cut and deliver not less than 1,000,000 feet nor more than 3,000,000 feet and the amounts for the following two drives were to be as the company desired. Also the company agreed “to deliver at the place of jobbing, for the use of said Smith, the railroad heretofore used by it in jobbing.” Smith agreed to take over the improvements the company made to begin this work, as well as its logging equipment.
Smith in his answer in law suit, referred to taking possession of SLB&M’s logging equipment about 8/1/1891
Another part of the contract was to suspend the work Smith was doing on Meadow Creek for one year although the contract for this timbering would remain in force and Smith would be paid a reasonable amount to watch and protect the improvements on this land. This contract also called for Smith to drive logs to the booms from near Travellers Repose, about 2,000,000 feet; the logs cut for the Cumberland Lumber Company; the logs cut by O’Connell on Spice Run; and logs from the mouth of Spring Creek. The drive was to begin as soon as the ice was out of the river. For this work the contract called for him to be paid, $1.75, $0.35, $0.40, and $0.30 per —- respectively. 50
The building of the railroad was the first step in removing the timber on Cummins Creek but resulted in one property owner taking SLB&M and Smith to court in August 1891. R. S. Turk, who had sold the white pine timber on two tracts to St. Lawrence, alleged that for the cross ties and stringers being used in building the railroad the company was using valuable white oak and hemlock timber cut from one of his tracts. He pointed out St. Lawrence had land adjoining his where the material for the railroad could be obtained. Turk also alleged the company had carried off about 75 cords of oak, which he understood was to be used as fuel for the locomotive. Turk alleged that instead of adhering to the terms of timber sale, the company sent “a large force of men upon the land and cut destroyed and hauled away, ad libitum timber of every other kind found thereon except white pine. This however is in keeping with the actions of this company in this county.” Turk estimated his loss already in an amount not less than $2,675.51
On August 17 the Circuit Court granted Turk’s request for a injunction forbidding St. Lawrence and Smith from cutting any timber on his land but white pine.52
In their answers to the suit, both SLB&M and Smith noted that it was necessary to cut a certain amount of other timber for the rights-of-way needed to get at the white pine Turk had sold. Smith admitted that six oak trees had been cut by mistake and the company agreed some cord wood had been cut on Turk’s land, but its employees had gone onto his land by mistake. Compensation was offered to Turk for both the cord wood and the six oak trees by Smith.53
In a deposition following the answers by the defendants, Turk questioned that the destruction of his timber could possibly have been by mistake. He noted finding logs ready for shipment, not be used for building the tramway. He claimed “this trespass was willful and malicious.”54
Following consideration of the answers filed by the company and Smith to Turk’s suit, on October 23, 1891, the Court dissolved the injunction and dismissed the suit.55
Turk, however, filed another lawsuit against SLB&M in December 1891 alleging the lumber company had entered another of his tracts in July 1891 and “carried away the said white pine, white oak, chestnut oak, black oak, hemlock, yellow pine, ash and maple timber of great value to wit; of value of $3500 . . .” the Gammon tract of land Turk
The case was set for trial in April 1892. On the 6th Turk did not appear and was “non-suited” and ordered to pay the defendant $5 damages and its costs. However, the next day the case was reinstated. In October the case was dismissed by consent of parties, each paying their own costs.56
Need to go through law suit case file, in Judgments, 1892 to 1893
By mid-January 1892 there were 3,000,000 feet of logs in Knapps Creek waiting for high water, the result of four months of work by “Jim.” “Several excellent specimens of that broad shouldered, calk booted and whole souled class of our citizens popularly denominated “loggers” are boarding in the city [Huntersville] waiting for “the drive” and their annual supply of rheumatism.”57
By the middle of February it was reported that the lumbermen were getting tired of waiting for a rise in the water and several were leaving. The necessary high water finally came in early March, moving the logs to the river on the 7th and 8th.58
It was about this time that Smith took as partners James Whiting and Frank Griffith, and they operated under the name, Smith, Whiting and Company. Whiting had left the lumber woods in 1890 and went into the store business at Ronceverte. However, the store burned in January 1891 and this may have sent him back to lumbering.59
O’Connell was again cutting timber for Cumberland and St. Lawrence on Spice Run. This turned out to be the last logging season he cut timber for Cumberland. He and that company became legal adversaries in 1893, as related in the previous chapter.60
His work on Spice Run for SLB&M this year was also the last for that company for several years since he and the company also ended up in the court system on the opposite sides of lawsuits. These suits were over the 1891 and 1892 drives and details are given at the end of this section of the chapter.
Regardless of problems, O’Connell did provide St. Lawrence with a good supply of logs in the 1892 drive, as the company’s account credits him with stocking 6,729,814 feet at the $5.25 price in the 1890 contract as well as 459,595 feet referred to “Coulter” logs. (These logs probably also came off of Spice Run as the Coulter family had land on that stream.)61
Despite the legal problem that was connected with this relationship between SLB&M and O’Connell, he was back in the employ of the company within a few years (but after the mid-1890s change of ownership of SLB&M).
There were news reports about a drive “near Dunmore” being ready to start in mid-March and that it started on the 25th. It is not known for certain whose timber was being cut, but Cumberland had timber on Sitlington Creek which was cut for previous drives, so this company may have continued its logging there for the 1892 drive.62
Footnotes
22 GI, 1/12/1888, 1/19/1888, 2/9/1888, 2/23/1888
23 GI, 3/29/1888
24 GI, 2/23/1888, 3/29/1888; GCCC, Daniel O’Connell vs. John T. Dixon,et al, in his deposition in 1899, O’Connell gave a figure of 6,000,000 feet for the 1888 drive
25 GI, 3/29/1888, 5/24/1888
26 GI, 5/10/1888, 12/13/1888
27 GI, 1/31/1889, 2/21/1889, 4/25/1889
28 GI, 8/16/1888, 4/25/1889; PT, 2/21/1889
29 GCCC, O’Connell vs. Dixon, et al, bill of complaint, filed —; PCCC, Daniel O’Connell vs. —-
30 GI, 6/6/1889, 6/20/1889; PT, 6/13/1889
31 History of Pocahontas County, 1981, p 58
32 PT, 1/31/1889, 2/14/1889
33 PT, 7/11/1889, 7/25/1889, 1/16/1890, 2/6/1890, 2/20/1890, 3/13/189034 PCDB 10, p 71, 6/25/1888, DB 20, p 1, 1/14/1889; PT, 9/19/1889, 3/27/1890; GCCC, —–, O’Connell, deposition 11/10 – 11/1899
35 PCDB 20, p 13, 7/19/1889, p 65, 8/9/1889; PT, 8/22/1889, 2/27/1890 36 GI, 3/13/1890, 4/3/1890; PT, 8/8/188937 PT, 5/29/1890; GI, 6/5/1890, 1/29/1891, 3/5/189138 Agreement, 7/14/1890, is in the file for GCCC, O’Connell vs. Dixon, et al39 Copy of the contract, dated 8/21/1890, is in the file for GCCC, SLB&M vs. O’Connell, et al40 GI, 8/28/1890; PCDB 20, p 20, 8/8/1889, agreement between William L. Coulter and Cumberland Lumber Company for a right of way over 230 acres on Spice Run (however, the record of debts and credits between SLB&M and O’Connell, in the same case file, shows no credits for the contractor for railroad building)41 Copy of the contract, dated 3/6/1891, is in the file for GCCC, SLB&M vs. O’Connell, et al42 Copy of the account, dated 8/19/1892, is in the file for GCCC, SLB&M vs. O’Connell; O’Connell vs. Dixon, et al, bill of complaint, in his deposition in 1899, O’Connell stated there were about 5,000,000 feet of logs in the 1891 drive, in PCCC, O’Connell vs. Cumberland, there is 4,557,719 feet moved from Caldwell to the mill boom in —43 PT, 8/7/1890, 9/18/1890, 12/25/1890, 2/12/1891; GI, 9/18/189044 PT, 2/5/1891, 2/26/1891; Charles Blondin (Jean Francois Gravelet, 1824-1897) was a well-known arialist and tightrope walker. He is best known for his walk at Niagara Falls on 6/30/1859, the first of many walks at the falls.45 PT, 2/26/189146 GI, 3/5/1891, 4/30/189147 GI, 2/26/1891; PT, 2/26/1891; Dilley, Log Drives on the Greenbrier 1876-189948 GCCC, Henry M. Dawson vs. St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company, bill of complaint, filed 6/5/189949 Ibid., he claimed 4025 poplar and 337 ash logs for the 1890 drive and 5217 logs in 1891; —50 Copy of the contract, dated 7/26/1891, is in the file for GCCC, SLB&M vs. D. O’Connell, et al; the contract used the older name for Cummins Creek, Little Back Creek; in a deed of trust, PCDB 22, p 185, 7/27/1891, Smith put up the improvements on Anthonys Creek, improvements already existing and to be made on Cummins Creek (dams, camps, cribs, and railroad), and logging equipment to secure for the company the payment of a $7242.74 cash advance, future advances, not over $3000, $2074 for camp equipment, and $2570 for improvements taken over by Smith 51 PCCC, R. S. Turk vs. St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company and E. A. Smith, bill of complaint, sworn to on 8/11/189152 PCCC, Turk vs. SLB&M and Smith, Chancery Order Book 5, p 12153 PCCC, Turk vs. SLB&M and Smith, SLB&M answer, sworn to on 10/17/1891, Smith answer, sworn to on –/–/189154 PCCC, Turk vs. SLB&M and Smith, Turk deposition, 10/17/189155 PCCC, Turk vs. SLM&M and Smith, Chancery Order Book 5, p 14156 PCCC, R. S. Turk vs. St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company, Common Law Order 5, p 433, 4/6/1892, p 434, 4/7/1892, p 460, 10/22/189257 PT, 8/6/1891, 9/17/1891, 1/21/189258 PT, 2/18/1892, 3/10/189259 WVN, 10/24/190860 PT, 8/6/1891, 3/17/1892; GI, 1/28/189261 Copy of the account, dated 8/19/1892, is in the file for GCCC, SLB&M vs. D. O’Connell
62 PT, 3/17/1892; GI, 3/31/1892
1893
For the 1893 log drive, Smith and his partners had contracts with two companies. They continued the work on Cummins Creek for SLB&M, again using their railroad to move logs to Knapps Creek. Work was under way in August and “Jim” had moved many thousands of feet of logs to the landing by mid-November.63
The other contract was with Cumberland Lumber Company to cut the white pine from a 2,302 acre tract on Sugar Camp Run, a tributary to Knapps Creek above Minnehaha Springs. Probably due to the deteriorating relationship with O’Connell, the company decided to put the logging of this tract out for bid and the work went to Smith, Whiting and Company for $5 per thousand feet.64
location also referred to as the Harper land – near William Harper, 8/4/1892, Harper’s mill, 8/11/1892 – check name of stream, Sugar Camp Run, Moore’s Sugar Camp Run, Moore Run?
John Taylor had a camp in the Dunmore area and he could have been cutting timber for the Cumberland Lumber Company. His drive got under way on February 9.65
In Knapps Creek the drive began working its way towards the river in mid-February and two flats for horses and “the smith shop” and an ark were reported being prepared at Marlinton.66
While waiting for the water to take the logs out of Knapps Creek, a good many of them lay in the creek at the ford at Huntersville in early February and this made crossing the stream difficult and dangerous. However, it was noted in the news article that “The Supreme Court has recently decided that a logging company have a right to use a navigable stream and if in going down stream a log inadvertently sticks in and obstructs the fording and renders the crossing as above, it can’t be helped and must be endured. This is on the grounds that constructively the lumberman has the same right to go down stream by way of his logs as the citizen has to cross it.”67
(Nevertheless, the next year, the Cumberland Lumber Company and its foreman on Cochrans Creek, John C. Hunter, were charged in April with the misdemeanor of blocking fords with logs. In October 1894 they entered a plea of guilty and were fined $5 and costs.)68
In an era more mindful of the Ten Commandants, log drive work raised a question about working on Sundays.
About this time every year the question is raised as to the rightness of working on the river on Sunday. The liberal minded man will allow that the way the tides are sent it is as much of a necessity as anything could become to those engaged in the business. John Taylor who has a charge of the drive on the river above this point [Marlinton] chooses not to work on Sunday. This principle insures a man to be right nine times out of ten.69
Although the two drives were under way in February, they were delayed by a lack of sufficient water until late April.
The long looked for raise in the waters came last week, and contrary to the general rule, Knapps creek got higher than the river. Capt. Smith’s force drove out of the creek in three days, and after waiting over the Sabbath, loaded his ark and horse flats and went out of sight down stream. The lesser drive on the river was unable to work on account of low water, and will depend on overtaking the big drive gone on before sometime soon. The work of the river makes an interesting sight and the men at work are in size, activity and courteousness a credit to the country. Only men of splendid nerve and will powers can stand the strain of lumbering. Some of them will stand as safely and securely on a log in the swirling current as a stake along one of the many boulevards of Marlinton.70
A casualty of the 1893 drive in Knapps Creek was a mill dam located between Minnehaha Springs and Huntersville. On February 17 the logs took out the dam that provided water for the Barkley grist mill. In July 1893 the Barkley Family went to court seeking $1,000 from Smith, Whiting and Company and the Cumberland Lumber Company for the destruction of the dam and for not being able to use their mill. In their complaint they stated “the said defendants unlawfully and by artificial means drove upon and against a certain Mill-Dam of the Plaintiffs situated and being across a certain Stream of water known as Knapp’s Creek at a point on said Creek about two miles East of the town of Huntersville, a vast number of large Saw Logs of great weight, to wit 10,000 Logs by means whereof they the said Defendants broke down, tore to pieces and destroyed the said Mill-Dam of the Plaintiffs . . .” The plaintiffs noted that without the dam they could, of course, not operate their water-powered grist mill.71
The case took over two years before being resolved. In October 1894 the lumber company was dismissed as a defendant. The trial was initially set for April 1895 but was continued until October. It finally got underway on October 18, 1895, and was concluded on the 21st with the jury returning a not guilty verdict against the logging firm. The presiding Judge, A. N. Campbell, instructed the jury that if logs could be floated in Knapps Creek at certain times of the year, then it was a floatable stream and no one had the right to obstruct it with a dam.72
1894
There were four logging jobs in the Knapps Creek watershed for the 1893-94 logging season.
Two of these were operated by Smith, Whiting and Company, cutting for both Cumberland Lumber Company and SLB&M, as they did the year before. For Cumberland they were again cutting on Sugar Camp Run. For SLB&M they were using their railroad to bring logs from Beaver Creek to the log landing at Huntersville.73
An accident on September 28 on S&W’s railroad left James Berry with severe injuries. He fell from a truck being pulled by the locomotive.74
The Cumberland Lumber Company also had a camp on Cochrans Creek with John C. Hunter as their foreman.75
The fourth operation in the Knapps Creek watershed was on Douthards Creek. It involved timber on a tract of 1,000 acres on the northern end of Middle Mountain, between Cochrans and Douthards creeks, and white pine timber on tracts of 50, 324, 303, and 220 acres on Douthards Creek. This timber was purchased by James R. Brewer, of Baltimore, in April and June 1893. Daniel O’Connell was in charge of the logging camp for this timber.76
This seemingly routine event of the white pine logging period resulted in a lawsuit that occupied the courts for the next five years and was the basis for the plot of a novel on the white pine era, Riders of the Flood, by Pocahontas County author Warren E. Blackhurst. The lawsuit was filed by Cumberland Lumber Company and claimed Brewer was cutting timber that it owned. O’Connell was the defendant in the case. The lengthy details on the lawsuit are given later in the chapter under – — – – – – – and only the briefest outline follows.
The first action in the lawsuit was an injunction on September 9 ordering the timbering to halt. The injunction was dissolved on October 13, allowing work to resume.77
The Times reported “Since the dissolution of the injunction in the case of the Cumberland Lumber Company against O’Connell, the force has been increasing in the Brewer Camp, and idle men readily find work.” and “A good many of the lumber boys have come back after the excitement. We understand that the lumber war is over, and Capt. Dan O’Connell won the day and never lost a man.”78
Earlier in October, even before O’Connell was able to get back to logging, the Huntersville correspondent for the Times had reported, “The lumbering is in full blast in this vicinity.”79
However, Cumberland moved its case to the United States Circuit Court for the District of West Virginia and obtained an injunction from the federal court against Brewer and the lumbering operations on Douthards Creek. In December the injunction papers were served on O’Connell, resulting in the laying off of his crew of about sixty men. However, on December 30 the federal judge amended the earlier order to allow the logs that had been cut to be removed.80
There was also logging on Sitlington Creek with John Taylor as foreman and on Anthonys Creek. There are no references to who owned the timber involved in these operations; probably St. Lawrence.81
Driving on Knapps Creek and its tributaries began in late February. However, just as the year before, activity soon came to a halt due to a lack of water.82
While waiting for water, there was a baseball game played between the men of Smith’s camp and the men of a log camp on Meadow Creek on April 28. The Meadow Creek team won by a score of 21 to 3. However, it was alleged that “the pitcher, catcher and short stop of the victorious nine were professional players, imported from Ronceverte for the express purpose of ‘doing up’ the rival camp. In this game the Huntersville nine were fearfully handicapped by not having a pitcher who could ‘curve,’ whilst the pitcher of the opposing nine was an expert and had them at his mercy. The phenomenal score is thus easily accounted for.”83
High water towards the end of May got the drive in Knapps Creek started on the 20th and brought the rear of the drive to within one mile of Marlinton by the next day. To move the logs the remaining distance water from a splash dam near Frost was needed. Water released from that dam at 8 a.m. reached Marlinton about 2 p.m. Splashes on three days were needed to bring all the logs to the river.84
The high water in May also allowed the logs cut by Taylor in the Sitlington Creek watershed to move from the mouth of that stream on the 19th and 20th. He was at Marlinton with his logs by the end of the month.85
With both the river and Knapps Creek drives gathered at Marlinton by the end of May, “The ‘June floods’ are now anxiously waited for.”86
The “ark” is now moored at this place [Marlinton] and our quiet town is enlivened by the presence of the lumbermen who have their home on board that craft until they have forced the last unruly log into the boom at Ronceverte. It is very much as if this town has had a riproaring college set down in it between two days. The lumbermen are about as lively as students.87
Although there was a rise in the river on June 8 that moved the logs a short distance, the “June floods” never did arrive; nor did the July, August or later floods. In July SLB&M began the construction of a splash dam in the river below Renick to provide the water needed to get at least some logs to the mill at Ronceverte. The dam was eleven feet high and had a thirty-four foot wide chute in the middle to allow for the flow of water and for the passage of lumber rafts. It was capable of backing up water for about three miles.88
Loggers remained at the ark at Marlinton for several months waiting for high water, before finally giving up in October.89
On Anthonys Creek, by early June the drive was was near Alvon but by the middle of the month the lumbermen had given up the idea of getting their drive done this season and the men began to leave.90
In court depositions given several years later, Whiting described the river in 1894, “It was unusually low that summer. It was lower than it has been any time in 11 years; there were places in the river from ten to twenty rods that you couldn’t see any water at all.” In his deposition A. E. Creigh noted that the mill races at Ronceverte became stagnant pools with the river almost dry.91
Sufficient rain to move the Pocahontas County drive down the river did not come until December. By the middle of that month about 4,000,000 feet were at the boom at Ronceverte, enough for the mill to start up. By early January 1895 about 8,000,000 feet had arrived at the boom and the rear of the drive was below Droop.92
Just two years later, in early January 1895, high water and ice again caused problems for the company. News reports disagree on the extent of the damage to the booms, but agree on a quantity of logs being carried away. Some of the logs were recovered at Alderson. In was noted that the “magnificent booms at Ronceverte” kept the loss of logs to a minimum with losses on other rivers heavier.
The rain ended up as a mixed blessing to some extent. Although it finally got the logs that had been stranded up the river from Ronceverte to the mill, the high water and the ice carried with it did some damage to the booms and carried some 500,000 feet of logs over the booms. However, nearly all of the logs were recovered at Alderson. “The Greenbrier has behaved better than any other steam in West Virginia, for the losses on all other rivers have been heavy.”93
It had not been an easy time for lumbering. The writer of a news item in January 1895 noted “Everything has combined against lumbering the past few years. Bugs destroyed the timber, the rains ceased, and the price has fallen.” (The reference to “bugs” destroying timber is probably — – – – – -94
Frank Griffith, the junior partner in Smith, Whiting and Company, died of typhoid fever on October 10, 1894. The remaining partners operated as Smith and Whiting.95
Some years after the end of the log drives, there were memories of a drive containing about a million feet of hardwood logs taking place in 1894. The oak, chestnut, and several other species of logs were cut on Island Lick Run and Rock Run the summer before by William H. Overholt and allowed to season. Even so, the logs floated lower in the water than the white pine and hemlock.96
Memory would have to be inaccurate as to the year because of the water conditions just described. The more likely year for this drive is 1896 as there is a news report in February of that year about Overholt sliding logs to the river and one in May that he had his drive as far as Bird’s mill dam.97
1895
Although there was concern during the summer and into the fall of 1894 that the lack of water to move the logs might prevent the operation of the lumber camps for the 1894-95 cutting season, this fear turned out to be unfounded. By late November enough logging had been done for this prediction to be made: “The drive will be very large this coming spring. Perhaps six or eight million of feet will come down with the Spring tide.”98
do I know where logging took place for the 1895 drive? – in Jim chapter, I do not know if the engine was used in the 1894-95 season at Huntersville
Mother Nature was kind to the lumbermen in 1895. They had good water conditions in March and the drive for the Cumberland Lumber Company left Marlinton on the 15th. Another drive, under O’Connell, was still in Knapps Creek at this time and had not gotten to the river by mid-April. An unexpected high water in the creek on April 8 caused the loss of his boats.99
The high water may have more serious concidences in Ronceverte on the 8th at the boom in Ronceverte. “Monday morning about 10 o’clock Mr. John Branham, a young man in the employ of the St. Lawrence Company, was standing on the boom logs, directing the logs, when a wave struck and threw him backwards into the river. He appeared once and then sank.”100
A drive in Anthonys Creek was reported to have 1,000,000 feet jammed in a bend in mid-March. Smith was given as the logging contractor on this job.101
This drive probably for Cumberland –
47-579, 7/10/1894, timber on 2500 ac middle fork of Anthonys Creek
47-309, 9/10/1894, white pine on Laurel Run, 525 ac
47-311, 9/22/1894, white pine on Laurel Run, 120 ac
47-319, 10/22/1894, agreement – with who? – for use of splash dam on Anthonys Creek, originally built by F. W. Harper, who had been cutting for SL
According to Smith’s deposition, 8/12/1907, in Pocahontas Tanning Co. vs. SLB&M, Sam Sutton, one of his subcontractors, finished the job on Sugar Camp Run for Cumberland this season, “ probably between five and eight thousand”
In April came this report from Ronceverte, “It was pleasant to hear our Pocahontas citizens here on the drive, commended for their good behavior, and their returning home with their well earned wages to be put to good uses there.”102
1896
Logging took place in at least three, perhaps four, locations in the 1895-96 logging season. Smith and Whiting located a camp on Knapps Creek near the home of W. L. Harper, — miles above Minnehaha Springs, in August. “The presence of white tents is very suggestive of a military encampment.” On Beaver Creek, __ Boggs had an operation and John Peters was cutting at a location in the upper part of the Greenbrier Valley, exact site not now known, but referred to in a news account as being at the “head of Greenbrier.” There was also one news reference to logging on Sitlington Creek.103
As far as is known, all of this logging was for St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company; there is no evidence of any other company operating.
In December Smith and Whiting erected a “commodious” camp at Huntersville – on Barlow land – for the driving crew, as an intermediate camp between the logging camp and Marlinton. The next month they were reported to have six million feet of logs ready to move. S&W moved from their Harper camp to the one at Huntersville in early March, with thirty men in the camp “waiting for a tide.”104
C. W. Workman, an employee at Boggs’ camp on Beaver Creek, had his leg mashed in late February or early March and it had be amputated in order to save his life.105
In January a boom was placed in Knapps Creek, three miles from Marlinton, to hold logs until all danger of ice in the river was gone. By early February the creek was jammed with logs for about three miles above the boom.106
The boom in Knapps Creek was broken last Thursday [February 14], and the scene was grand, gloomy, and peculiar as the timbers rolled and crashed down the noisy waters. A few months ago these pines were the princes of the forests, objects of beauty and adoration on the world-renowned spurs of the Allegheny. It is sad to see them thus prostrated and sent away, leaving only memories of beauty. Perhaps some of them will get back in the guise of goods-boxes, window sash and doors opening into homes yet to be built.107
However, following the initial start to the drive in the creek, the water flow must have dropped as a week later it was reported that the lumbermen were waiting for a flood. They were still waiting in early March. High water towards the end of March finally moved the remaining logs to the river, with the last logs out of Knapps Creek and into the river on March 21.108
An ark to go with the drive downriver from Marlinton was reported to be under construction in late March. “It is 66 cubits in length, 8 cubits in height, and 11 cubits in breadth. When it is done he will take into it every kind of a man, animal and every creeping thing and wait for a flood.”109
Boggs moved his logs down Beaver Creek in March and had them into the river about the first of April.110
From up river, Peters had his drive also under way in March. It was about opposite – Jack Cassell – late in the month and passed Sitlington Creek on the 29th. His drive arrived at Marlinton on April 1 and joined the Smith and Whiting drive.111
A rise in the river in late April enabled the drive to move from Denning’s Landing (probably mouth of Laurel Run) to the splash dam below Renick, but it had to make a stop at the dam as the ark would not go through the chute. The problem was only temporary and the drive was completed by early May.112
3/20/1896 “Messrs Roake and Buckley went to Capt. Peters camp, head of Greenbrier, to pilot the floating camp to this place (where) to be in readiness for the expected drive.”
By the mid-1890s the logging had been going on for a sufficient length of time that the change it created in the landscape was becoming obvious. In early 1897 the Times made an observation similar to the one in the quote above:
The disappearance of the logs and timbermen have made a great change in the appearance of things between Marlinton and Driscol. Our old acquaintances, the logs, will hardly be recognizable when they return in a year or two as furniture, goods-boxes and picture frames. It makes a great difference with logs, as well as boys, to go abroad, remain awhile and then come back to serve some useful or ornamental purpose.113
A photo of an ark in the Historical Society’s collection, photo No. 3010, with a date of April 17, 1906 (???), is identified as belonging to Smith and Whiting.
Logging The Greenbrier Valley 