As just noted at the end of the previous chapter, by the first few years of the Twentieth Century all needed for the development of the timber resource of the Upper Greenbrier Valley was in place. The operation that was centered at the new town of Cass, with its main purpose in supplying the new paper mill in Covington, Virginia, with the necessary pulp wood for paper production and a major factor in the C&O Railway’s decision to build its new rail line has already been reviewed. Acquisition of other land in the valley by – – — was described in the chapter before. Once the building of the rail line up the Greenbrier River by the C&O became known, more men and companies in the timber industry began to purchase land in the valley. Several companies had their saw mills and associated towns —– The construction of the Coal and Iron Railroad’s line from Elkins to Durbin had the same effect along the Greenbrier River’s West Fork.
Once its line up the river was in place, the C&O began to establish stations for its freight and passenger customers. Some of the stations were at existing communities such as Renick or Seebert but most were created in some connection with the logging operations. A total of —- stations were eventually established, most within the first —– years of the – – –
A few of the stations were what were called “agency stations” which had a depot building and an “agent” to sell tickets for passenger trains and handle the freight business. Most of the stations were what were called “flagstops” which had at most a shelter shed for passengers and ocassionaly a freight shed. At the flagstops passengers got their tickets from the train’s conductor. Freight customers at the flagstops had to deal with the agent at the nearest agency station.
The agency stations on the Greenbrier Branch were North Caldwell, Anthony, Spring Creek, Renick, Beard, Seebert, Marlinton, Clover Lick, Sitlington, Raywood, Cass, Durbin, Bartow, and Winterburn. The Durbin station also served the Coal and Iron (Western Maryland) line from Elkins. All the other of the —- stations were flagstops. At some point the stations were given a number, generally from the nearest milepost.
This chapter will relate the logging history connection with the following stations. The larger — —
R16 Woodman R71 Clover Lick
R21 Spring Creek R78 Raywood
R36 Spice Run R79 Deer Creek
R40 Denmar R92 Boyer
Warntown R101 Thornwood
R48 Watoga Wisetown
R55 Stillwell R101 1/2 Winterburn
Campbelltown
WOODMAN
In February of 1906 a Greenbrier County tract containing 10,990 acres was sold by the Peerless Lumber Company, of Pittsburgh, to the Donaldson Lumber Company, of Charleston, for $164,856.75. The tract included most of the Laurel Run watershed but also extended across Peach Orchard, Slabcamp, and Hopkins Mountains onto the Anthonys Creek watershed.1
The tract was known as the Soissons and Spriggs land and was part of a larger tract of —-. In — the land was partitioned into four sections, which were assigned to ——. The Sherwood Company – and St. Lawrence(?) – acquired the —– along the river —in —. —- acquired —- in —- 2
The 10,990 acre property changed owners three times in 1904. H. L. VanSickler, of Lewisburg, acquired it from Joseph and William Soissons in May, for $87,923.60. VanSickler sold it to W. B. Brush the same month, who paid $109,904.50. Brush, the President of Peerless, transferred the property to that company in July.3
For some reason, unknown at this date, VanSickler did not purchase the Sherwood Company’s section of the larger tract, which bordered on the river. However, he did acquire an agreement for a railroad right-of-way through the land in May 1904, which he assigned to Brush the same month. Sherwood sold its tract in December of the next year (see Deeter in Chapter XII).4
Although a 25 acre tract for use as a mill site was purchased by Brush in May from the Henderson Lumber Company, located on both sides of the river, as a far as is known, Peerless did not begin to cut the timber on the land the company purchased.5
The situation changed with the 1906 purchase by Donaldson. That year the C&O established a new station, Woodman, and installed a siding the same year. The name of the station came from lumber company President Frank Woodman.6
Immediately after acquiring the property, Donaldson was involved in a lawsuit with the owner of the tract to the south, the Kendall and Deeter Lumber Company, over the boundary between the two tracts. Donaldson was accused —- by the other company. The Greenbrier County Circuit Court ordered the county surveyor to do a survey of the boundary. In a court order on November — , the court ruled in Donaldson’s favor and the company added 242 acres to its property.7
Work on the mill site and logging railroad was reported to be underway in April 1906 and the bridge over the river was nearly complete in August. The mill was on the west side of the river, along the C&O, but the store, office, boarding house, and most of the employee housing was on the east side.8
In May 1906, the Henderson Lumber Company sold Donaldson 111 acres of land, mostly on the east side of the the river but extending across to the railroad. The 25 acres sold to Peerless in 1904 was included in the boundary of this tract. In November J. I. Henderson sold S. D. Donaldson a 970 acre tract on the west side of the river.9
The company operated its mill at Woodman with almost no notice in newspapers and it managed to keep out of legal problems after the lawsuit in 1906.
Being the days before “political correctness,” the company advertised as follows in July 1907: “WANTED – stout girl to assist in boarding house at Donaldson Lumber Co.’s mill. Apply to Mrs. Jno. Ramsey on premises or by letter to Anthony P. O.”10
The company’s bridge across the river was badly damaged by flood water on February 15 and 16, 1908. Although the bridge was constructed 22 feet above low water, the flood water ran over it and the bridge was badly twisted by having timbers lodged against it.11
There was an August 1908 report that Woodman and nearby Kendall and Deeter Lumber Company “have shut their mills” but no reason was given.12
A bad wreck on Donaldson’s railroad on December 10, 1909, resulted in major damage to equipment, but fortunately no fatal injuries to the crew. The train got out of control of the crew and wrecked at the “Deeter” fill — ten miles from mill —where? The engine made a complete somersault off the track with the cars following it over the embankment. There were three men on the train. “Shorty” Macdougal, the engineer, was badly burned about the face by steam, Cal Alsher had internal injuries, and Harry Jerrolds was not injured.13
In January 1910 the Greenbrier County Court gave Donaldson permission to build tram road across the Little Creek & Renick Road.14 which road
The exact date for the completion of the lumber operation at Woodman is not known, but was probably in 1915 or 1916. The company sold a log loader in February 1915 and timber on two tracts, 1,652 acres on Little Creek and 703 acres on Rocky Run, on the Anthonys Creek side of its timberlands in March of 1916 (See Anthonys Creek in Chapter XIV). The mill site was sold in April 1917, with the right to remove the bridge reserved.15
Donaldson Lumber Company sold 5,154 acres of the 10,990 acre tract in a number of sales of varying sizes from 1915 to 1918. The largest sale was in July 1916 to the Hans-Watt Realty Company, of —-, 1,400 and 630 acre tracts, for $6,089. Being a real estate company, the assumption is that Hans-Watt had plans for developing the land, but the only sale it made was to the Forest Service in September 1935. The price was $6,669.32.16
The balance of the land, 5,670 acres, went to the Forest Service in February 1936 for $10,205.64, following a condemnation action.17
Only one report of of an employee death during the operation of the Woodman mill has been found. Ben Buzzby, a worker at the mill was drowned in the river on March 6, 1908. A native of Virginia, he received word that his wife was very ill. The Greenbrier Branch train was running very late and Mr. Buzzby would miss the mainline train at Ronceverte, so he decided to go to Ronceverte in a boat. The river was very high and a few hundred yards below the starting point, above the bridge at Anthony, the boat capsized. A companion was able to swim ashore, but Mr. Buzzby was drowned. At the date of the news article the body had not been recovered.18
The name of this company is believed to have come from S. D. and George M. Donaldson. One of the Donaldsons may have been married to a sister of Woodman.
“Capt” —Donaldson died at Anthony on —-, 1915 – English by birth – he and other Englishmen played golf at White Sulphur Springs in early 1890s – claim made this was the first golf played in the USA.19
Locomotives
There is almost no information on the equipment Donaldson used on its lumber railroad. The C&O siding had a third rail so it is known that the logging railroad was narrow gauge. Two sources said the company had one locomotive, which was probably a Climax. A 1906 news article referred to two Climax engines. The article on the 1909 wreck described the locomotive involved as an “almost new ten ton straight connected . . . ”20
Climax web site has X105, an 18 ton, 36” gage, built in 1906 – lists Donaldson Lbr. Co, as first owner, Bartholomew Saw Mill Co, Ward, and finally American Col. and Lbr. Co., Hillsboro
Mill
Sources vary on the type of mill used by the Donaldson Lumber Company; an eight-foot band mill or a large circular mill.21
Donaldson may have had a mill on the east side of the river first. The bill of complaint in the lawsuit between Kendall and Deeter Lumber Company and Henderson referred to Donaldson bringing a boiler and engine over the road to the mouth of Laurel Run, the road that was in disagreement in that lawsuit.
In March 1913 Donaldson Lumber Company gave the South Penn Oil Company, of Oil City, Pennsylvania, an oil and gas lease on its property, but the effort to find oil was unsuccessful. In November there was a report in the Times as follows:
J. M. Mann was up from Greenbrier postoffice Monday. He tells us the well drilled by the South Penn Oil Company at Woodman in prospecting for oil was a dry well and was abandoned at the depth of 2,500 feet. The company has taken down the rigging and gone. For the first four hundred feet streams of salt water was (sic) continuously met with. Then for two thousand much of the way was through limestone. At 2,400 feet a sand was found and some indications of oil. At this point the well was shot, a charge of 80 quarts of nitro-glycerine being exploded. However, no oil developed. The nitro-glycerine was brought from Charleston by a man driving overland with it in a buggy.22
The lease was canceled in December.23
Footnotes
1 GCDB 69, p182, 2/15/1906, $40,000 paid and the balance in 10 payments of various amounts over the next 4 years
2
3 GCDB 64, p 452, 5/3/1904, $29,307.87 paid and due in 1 and 2 years, p 463, 5/3/1904, $32,713.33 paid and due in 1 and 2 years, DB 65, p 587, 7/7/1904,
4 GCDB 64, p 473, 5/26/1904, $40/acre to Sherwood, and $5/1000 feet for lumber on the right-of-way to St. Lawrence, p 477, 5/30/1904
5 GCDB 64, p 484, 5/28/1904, the deed also included joint use of the “Salt Mill Road”
6 C&O List of Industrial Tracks, siding contract dated 1/1/1906; The Durbin Route, p 136
7 GCCC, Kendall and Deeter Lumber Company and S. M. Jones vs. Donaldson Lumber Company, bill of complaint, 3/–1906, court orders, —-: WVN, 11/10/1906
8 WVN, 5/5/1906, 6/9/1906; GI, 8/23/1906; Samuel Lovelace, interview on 1/8/1983
9 GCDB 70, p 310, 5/1/1906, $ – – – -, DB 71, p 636, 11/19/1906, $1 plus paying off $750 in notes
10 GI, 7/18/1907
11 GI, 2/27/1908; PT, 2/20/1908
12 WVN, 8/29/1908
13 WVN, 12/18/1909
14 GI, 1/13/1910
15 Sydney Lovelace, interview on 1/2/1983; Samuel Lovelace interview; GCDB 88, p 118, 2/18/1915, DB 89, p 643, 3/28/1916, DB 93, p 115, 4/4/1917
16 GCDB 89, pp 402, 425, 568, DB 90, pp 85, 110, 132, 150, 7/18/1916, 444, DB 91, pp 172, 208, 262, DB 92, p 502, DB 93, p 167, 238, DB 96, p 505, DB 125, p 296, 9/7/1935, DB 141, p 449, 12/18/1941 (correction deed)
17 GCDB 126, p 536, 2/19/1936, the figures in the two paragraphs to not add up, the reason for the difference is not known, but is probably due to better surveys
18 PT, 3/12/1908
19 PT, 4/1/1915
20 Lovelace interviews; The Durbin Route, p 136; GI, 10/4/1906; WVN, 12/18/1909
21 Lovelace interviews; Forestry and Wood Industries, pp 149, 446
22 GCDB 85, p 399, 3/12/1913; PT, 11/27/1913
SPRING CREEK
The name Spring Creek Lumber Company was used twice in the history of logging in the Greenbrier Valley
The first company with the name was a partnership made up of M. W. Walton, John Driscol, and W. M. Pitts. In November and December 1899 the partners acquired four tracts of land on Spring Creek, the largest, on Rock Camp Run – find – containing 120 acres.383
To what extent, if any, the partners cut the timber from these tracts is not known. Three of the tracts were sold in August 1900 and the largest one in September 1902, with the timber reserved in both sales.384
The second Spring Creek Lumber Company was a longer-lasting concern. Its history began in January 1920 with the purchase of the timber on a 6,421 acre tract on the headwaters of Spring Creek and the South Fork of Cherry River by Miles M. Brown and David D. Brown, both of Elkins, from the Gauley Coal Land Company, of Boston, Massachusetts. The cost was $50,000.385
The Browns made two land purchases in May 1920. One was a 52 acre tract on the C&O at the mouth of Spring Creek for $15,500. The other contained 65 acres and was located on Spring Creek, about a half mile from the river and cost $6,000. They also acquired several smaller tracts of timber, totaling over 600 acres. The company’s mill was located on the 52 acre tract.386
In July 1920 a charter was issued to the Spring Creek Lumber Company, with the two Browns, Robert B. Buzzard, D. E. Lutz, and Florence S. Brown (Mrs. Miles), all of Elkins, as incorporators. In March 1921 the timber on the 6,421 acre tract, the smaller tracts of timber, and railroad rights-of-way on Spring Creek were transferred to the company.387
Soon after incorporation, in August, the new company purchased the site of the Brown-Livesay grist mill, located on Spring Creek about — 1/2 way between Rt. 219 and river — miles from the river. The $100 purchase included the mill foundation, dam, and water rights. The mill machinery was not included in the sale. Perhaps this acquisition was made to obtain the stone in the foundation and dam as the deed gives Spring Creek permission to proceed with the removal of the stone.388
The following year, in April, the company purchased the Spring Creek Flouring Mill located at Spring Creek. The cost of this acquisition was the 65 acre tract of land and the assumption of a note for $3,500. Whether the lumber company continued to operate the grist mill is not known. However, it was included in a 1923 list of the company’s assets.389
check the reference to 65 ac tract as it is included in September 1921 deed of trust over Slaymaker agreement or is that 65 ac a tract of timber purchased later?
Work on grading the railroad up Spring Creek was reported to be underway by July 1920.390
To reach the lumber company’s mill, its logging railroad had to cross the C&O right-of-way. This crossing was made a short distance south of the bridge over Spring Creek. To allow for the crossing, the railroad had to shorten its passing track. Also, as a condition for allowing the the main line crossing, the C&O required the installation of four automatic signals, two on each side of the crossing.391
The sawmill used at Spring Creek may have come from Winterburn. This mill was sold to the Browns in July 1920 and according to D. D. Brown the mill was purchased for use at Spring Creek.392
“GRAND OPENING OF A NEW INDUSTRIAL CENTER AT SPRING CREEK” was at the heading of an advertisement for the August 27, 1921, auction sale of fifty lots. The ad went on to state the lumber company has 8,000 acres of virgin timber to develop, is building a railroad, constructing homes for workers and laying the foundation for “their immense saw-mills which will be in on a run of many years as soon as they are completed. This is a great chance to get in on the ground floor where something is actually doing.” In addition to the auction, the ad promised a brass band, daylight fireworks, handsome presents, and the giving away of a lot.393
The auction —– lots were sold.
Spring Creek was one of several lumber companies that obtained rail for its logging railroad from the C&O, with a lease of 52,800 feet of 50, 56, and 62 pound rail in August 1921. The rent was 6% per year based on the rail valued at $40 per long ton and $1 per pair of angle bars. As the lease was renewed over the years, the value dropped, coming to $15 per ton for the rail and $0.70 per pair for the angle bars with the final renewal in 1934.394
Financial assistance for this logging operation was provided by S. E. Slaymaker and Company, a lumber sales company, with offices in New York City. Under an August 1921 agreement, Slaymaker was to provide Spring Creek Lumber Company with $50,000, to be paid in monthly payments of $10,000 beginning in October. For its part, the lumber company agreed to supply 8,000,000 feet of lumber per year to Slaymaker.395
At the time of the agreement with Slaymaker, timber on an additional —— acres had been obtained.396 96-6, 100, 102, 103, 424, 314, 315 517, 97-107, 228, 425, 442, 98-206 94?-715
The Browns did not remain involved with their operation in Greenbrier County for a great length of time. In March of 1923 agreement was reached with Charles A. Briggs and Walter C. Barlett for an option to purchase with $725,000 to be the price.397
In October 1923 the purchase of the company by W. C. Barlett Lumber Company was completed, but it continued to operate under the name of Spring Creek Lumber Company. Barlett was President, A. D. Pickering, Vice-president, and A. K. Forney, Secretary-Treasurer, of the reorganized company. When it made the purchase of the Spring Creek operation, W. C. Barlett Lumber Company was operating the Spice Run mill on a contract basis.398
At the time of the ownership change, there were fourteen miles of railroad in place with the grade completed for about a mile more. The town had nineteen houses, two boarding houses, and a store building. There was also a water system to serve the community and mill with a 13,000 gallon tank and filtration plant.399
In December 1929 there was a news report in the Times that the company purchased timber on 5,000 to 6,000 acres on Robins Fork, a tributary of Spring Creek. However, there are no deeds to confirm this report. Perhaps, the acreage of two timber purchases, 690 and 201 acres, with a January 1930 deed date, had become the larger figures by the time the news reached Marlinton. Spring Creek paid $16,66.66 for this timber.400
A number of smaller tracts of timber were acquired in 1929, totaling 1,085 acres, at a cost of $9,200. One tract was on the Cherry River and the others were in the Spring Creek watershed.401
In the summer of 1929 the C&O Railway engineering staff prepared maps for possible routes for an extension of the Spring Creek Lumber Company railroad from Spring Creek, across several mountains, into the Little Clear Creek watershed to harvest timber owned by the Gauley Coal Land Company and the Graham Smokeless Coal Company. This never occurred and a look at the steepness of the proposed alternative routes is probably one reason why; also the country was about to go into the Depression. (Meadow River Lumber Company at Rainelle cut this timber.)402
The company continued to operate into the 1930s, finishing up in late 1934, unfortunately without a lot of attention from local news correspondents to provide interesting comments on its history. On May 31, 1935, the stockholders of the Spring Creek Lumber Company (all the stock was owned by the W. C. Barlett Lumber Company) voted to surrender the company’s charter and transfer the remaining assets into the name of the W. C. Barlett Lumber Company as a “liquidating dividend”. The property transfer was made in June and included a few small tracts of land, all at Spring Creek, the mill and its equipment, and the railroad and logging equipment.403
Barlett did not retain the real estate for long, disposing of the tracts between September of 1935 and December of the next year. One source stated that the mill was burned in order to salvage the equipment to sell for junk.404
Locomotives
It may not be possible at this time to determine for certain the number of engines used by the Spring Creek Lumber Company. The following are found in various sources:
Shay CN 978 1905 (1921) 45 tons 2 trucks No. 1
Shay CN 3255 1924 70 tons 3 trucks No. 3
Shay CN 941 1904 (1926) 65 tons 3 trucks No. 2
Shay CN 2856 1916 (1926) 70 tons 3 trucks No. 3405
The company purchased only one engine new (first No. 3) and acquired the others as used equipment. Sources agree that No. 1 came from J. M. Bemis and Son at Bemis in April 1921 and No. 2 and second No. 3 from the Spice Run Lumber Company, both in February 1926.
The January 1923 appraisal of the company’s assets prior to the sale to W. C. Barlett Lumber Company listed only one locomotive, a fifty-ton Shay, described as “Old.” This engine is assumed to be No. 1. Other railroad and logging equipment at this time were nine log cars, three water tanks, one car for handling steel, one caboose, one gasoline motor car, one Decker skidder, and two Barnhart log loaders.406
At the time the stockholders voted to dissolve the company in 1935, the list of the personal property of the company included two seventy-ton, three-truck Shays. Other railroad and logging equipment included in the list of property were two Barnhart log loaders, one Marion steam shovel, thirty log cars, two flat cars and one ten-ton Caterpillar tractor.407
The two engines still on the property in 1935 were the former Spice Run engines. There are references to No. 1 being scrapped and first No. 3 being sold, both in 1929.408
If the numbering given in the various sources is correct, it raises some questions. The two Spice Run engines probably just kept the numbers they came with, but why was the new engine in 1924 numbered 3? Was there another No. 2 prior to acquiring CN 3255?
Another question concerns the possible use of Climax locomotives at Spring Creek? One person interviewed said that CN 1579 came from Spice Run to Spring Creek, but no other reference confirms this. A photo exists of logging equipment owned by M. M. and D. D. Brown, taken in Elkins, before being shipped to Spring Creek, that includes a Climax and Shay No. 2.409
Spring Creek Lumber Company also obtained some of its logging cars from Spice Run Lumber Company. In January 1923 Spring Creek sought permission from the C&O to move eight cars from Spice Run. Spice Run asked to be able to move ten cars to Spring Creek in November 1925. In a telegram between C&O officials, the cars were said to be the same equipment operated between Spice Run and Mill Run “prior to last June.”410
Mill
The January 1923 appraisal gave the mill containing an eight-foot band saw with a six-foot resaw. A planing mill with two planers had not been installed at this time.411
In 1935 the company had an eight-foot Allis Chalmers band mill and resaw, lath mill, Berlin Double Surfacer and Matcher, six foot Fay and Egan band resaw, swing cutoff saw, rip saw, machine shop, power plant, and thirty lumber trucks. The Spring Creek flouring mill is also in the list.412
Mill capacity varied by source, from 40,000 to 60,000 feet daily.413
In 1936 S. J. Neathawk started up a circular mill, with 1,200 feet/day capacity, on the site of the band mill. Neathawk sold the mill in 1948 to the Greenbrier Lumber Company. Another change in ownership came in 1964 when the mill was sold to Earl Roth. He closed the operation in December 1977.414
23
Logging The Greenbrier Valley 