As occurred with the construction of the C&O up the main stem of the Greenbrier River, the building of the Coal and Iron Railway from Elkins to Durbin was quickly followed by the development of the timber resource along its route.
Although the Coal and Iron became part of the Western Maryland Railroad in 1905, the line was often referred to by its original name for a number of years afterwards. The railroad’s stations and their mileposts (representing the distance from Elkins) in Pocahontas County were:
Oxley, MP 30.5 Garland, MP 41.7
Wildell, MP 31.1 Fill Run, MP 43.1
Gertrude, MP 34 Meta, MP 43.5
May, MP 35.9 Olive, MP 44.5
Cove, MP 38.3 Maurer, MP 46.2
Burner, MP 39.2 West Durbin, MP 46.4
Braucher, MP 41.4 Durbin, MP 47.11
None of these stations had an agent, all were flagstops. Durbin, of course, was an agency station but was a C&O agency station which the WM shared.
The company was the Western Maryland Railroad until a reorganization in 1909 changed the name to Western Maryland Railway.2
The northern portion of Pocahontas County, including the West Fork of the Greenbrier River, used to be referred to as the Upper Tract. For a number of years after the formation of the county in 1821, much of the West Fork remained in Randolph County. In 18-- a boundary line commission decided that the boundary between the two counties should should follow the ridge line separating watersheds.
As a result Pocahontas County not only gained acreage, but valuable timber land.
At this time [June 1905] the hemlock is being cut down and the bark peeled. The hemlock here are as large as any in the world and will average two thousand feet to the tree and a cord of bark. The trees as they stand are worth from ten to twenty-five dollars each. One tree cut at the mouth of Elk Lick Run furnished one hundred and eighteen feet of logs and scaled five thousand and eighty feet, and such trees are not uncommon. Sixty thousand feet of lumber can be cut from a single acre.3
Footnotes
1 Western Maryland Railroad Time Table No. 3, 9/30/1906
2
3 PT, 6/1/1905
OXLEY
At this station on the Western Maryland Railway, almost at the Randolph County line, was located a small lumbering operation that was generally referred to as Moore and Lawton, although other names appear on the various deeds.
In July 1901, H. C. Moore, of Brookville, Pennsylvania, John W. Lawton, of Huttonsville, and John C. Moorhead and R. W. Moorhead, both of Kittanning, Pennsylvania, purchased the timber on tracts of 480 and 600 acres on the headwaters of the West Fork, for $10,000. Ownership of the timber was one-third with Moore, one-third with Lawton, and the other third with the two Moorheads. The two tracts were located on the east side of Back Allegheny Mountain -----4
In August of the next year, the timber was sold to C. W. Amsler, J. C. Campbell, and C. L. Rohrer, of ----, for $14,700. check To complicate the matter, at least for someone who looks though the deed books today, the next transaction on record was the sale of the 480 acre tract, in fee, to Moore and Lawton in January 1903, for $1,800. (The ownership of the timber, however, remains in the names of Amsler, Campbell, and Rohrer.)5
In July 2003, Moore and Lawton purchased a 24 acre tract from the Pocahontas Tanning Company, on the west side of the river, along the railroad. They paid $965 for this land.6
The Moorheads were not involved in the acquisition of the two tracts of land, so must have ended their connection with this operation; they acquired timber on the North Fork of Anthonys Creek in February 1903 and installed a mill there (see Shryock in Chapter XIV).
The reason for the purchase of the 24 acre tract was the discovery in ---- that the boundaries of the two timber tracts were not exactly as the purchasers thought they were. A new survey showed they totaled only 914 acres instead of 1,080 acres and the boundary did not extend to the railroad. The tract from the tanning company was needed to provide access to the railroad.7
Probably due to the discovery of the shortage in acreage, the final payment for the timber was not made, which resulted in a lawsuit filed against the lumbermen in April 1904, seeking $2,000. In their defense Moore and Lawton argued the smaller acreage meant they had about 1,000,000 feet of spruce less than they thought they were buying, a loss of between $4,000 and $5,000. Also, they had to make the unexpected land purchase along the railroad.8
In a ruling on January 16, 1906, the Pocahontas County Circuit Court agreed Moore and Lawton were entitled to an abatement on the purchase price and ruled they owed only $520. However, the case was appealed to the state Supreme Court which ruled on November 27, 1906, that the timber sellers were owed $2,745. The higher court ruled that the evidence was too indefinite and fell short of proving the deficiency in land size.9
need to find full Supreme Court decision
In the meantime, outside of the court rooms, the timber was being removed from the land. The Western Maryland Railroad installed a 550 siding at Oxley in August 1903. That same month there was a news item in the Times, "At Oxley at the extreme head of Greenbrier River the land is being cleared for a saw mill town."10
• December 1904 - Moore and Lawton “industry” at Oxley mentioned in an article on the West Fork.
• February 1906 - “Moore & Lawton at Oxley, started their train to hauling bark Monday. The[y] have a large quantity of hemlock bark in the woods which they will have to move in the next three months.”
• 1906 - “Moore and Lawton have started their mill and are running steadily. They have bought a new engine, which is doing good work.”11
In September 1911 Moore and Lawton sold the 480 and 24 ac tracts, less some lots sold, to Amsler. In December Amsler sold the land to George W. Wilson, a member of the family owning the Wildell Lumber Company, reserving the right to house a locomotive in a building on the land until it can be sold.12
Report on one death has been found. Ray A. Lawton, c. 30, was killed in an accident on March 18, 1907, as he was helping with the switching of a train. The two news articles on the accident vary on the details of how the accident occurred, but Mr. Lawton fell beneath the train and was run over. He was the son of J. W. Lawton and worked as bookkeeper for the company.13
The name of the railroad flagstop, Oxley, did not come from the lumber operation, but from a man who lived on the property.14
Locomotive
Moore and Lawton had at least one locomotive, but no details have been located.
Oxley seems to have been the location of a business that provided some of the services desired by the loggers when they came from the woods after a hard six days of work in the woods.
There were two references to such facilities in the Times in 1906.
Speakeasy Burned at Wildell
About 7 o’clock Saturday night, April 28, [1906] it was discovered that the famous pigs ear, gambling den and resort at Oxley was on fire. The occupants had gone to Glady for a Sunday’s supply of goods and left the place unoccupied. The fire originated in the lower story and spread very slowly, but no effort whatsoever was made by the bystanders to save the building or contents. Everything burned. It was a large building, 15 rooms, plastered, well finished and furnished. It was built by Porter Harper, of Davis. When it was being built, some of the good people asked him if he was going to run a speakeasy, but it shocked him as he said he was a church member. That settled the matter. A stock of groceries was put in for a blind of a saloon. The proprietor was arrested and taken to Marlinton and the place was closed for awhile, but it recently started up again with a stock of “Big Pop.” There were few tears shed last night over the destruction of this building, especially by the women – – one of whom said she expected she could now get a new hat next payday as the pig’s ear was gone.15
In October, county officials made a raid on either an another such facility at Oxley or the a rebuilt version of the speakeasy burned in April. This raid was one of several being made on the illicit liquor dealers of the Green Bank District. Although “a large number of witnesses were caught,” Fred Louck, the proprietor of the saloon, escaped arrest. He was traced as far as Elkins but without success. “So large was the quota of witnesses that the big mill at Oxley had to shut down. We understand that this joint has been a particularly outbreaking one, with bar wide open, selling liquid damnation to all comers who have the cost and we are glad it has been broken up.” Officers making the raid were Paris D. Yeager and W. J. Pritchard. 16
Footnotes
4 PCDB 34, p 423, 7/10/1901, $3000 paid, $3500 due in 1 and 2 years5 PCDB 34, p 363, 8/6/1902, $4700 paid, $5000 due in 1 and 2 years, p 362, 1/12/1903, $300 paid, $750 in 1 and 2 years6 PCDB 35, p 198, 7/11/19037 PCCC, Wirt C. Ward and Elihu Hutton vs. H. L. Moore, et al8 PCCC, Ward vs. Moore, depositions of H. C. Moore and J. W. Lawton, 6/17/19059 PCCC, Ward vs. Moore, Chancery Order Book 8, pp 130, 280, 294; W. Va. Supreme Court —– 10 Guthrie, “Mile by Mile”; PT, 8/13/190311 PT, 12/22/1904, 2/22/1906, 5/3/190612 PCDB 47, p 218, 9/23/1911, DB 49, p 10, 12/9/191213 MM, 3/29/1907; PT 4/4/1907 (from Elkins Inter Mountain), buried in Maplewood Cemetery14 15 PT, 5/3/190616 PT, 10/4/1906
WILDELL
In September 1903 a tract of 11,011 acres on the headwaters of the West Fork of the Greenbrier River, Glady Fork, and Laurel Fork in Pocahontas and Randolph Counties was sold to the Wildell Lumber Company by the Pocahontas Tanning Company. The purchase price was $275,275, with $75,000 paid and the balance to be paid over the next five years. In the deed the tanning company reserved the hemlock bark on the tract which the lumber company was to sell and load on railroad cars for $5 per ton.17
The lumber company itself was chartered only a few days earlier in the same month by Merritt S. Wilson, Marshall N. Wilson, W. T. Harvey, Mark S. Wilson, all of Wilson, and Charles Deal, of Gormania. The name of the company and its town on the West Fork came from Merritt Wilson and his wife, Forrest Delle Wolfe Wilson.18
On stationary used in a 1910 letter, M. W.? Wilson was given as President and Manager, Frank E. Wilson as Vice-president, and George W. Wilson as Secretary/Treasurer.19
This was the first of three Wilson Family lumber operations in the Greenbrier Valley, the Marlin Lumber Company at Stillwell (see Chapter X) being the second and, several years later, the Ruth Bell Lumber Company at Durbin (see Chapter XII). The Wilsons were involved with the purchase of the timber that was cut at Denmar, but did not establish the mill there. The family also had a mill at Mill Creek (1911 – 1931) and the still operating mill at Elkins. (Although the Wilson post office and railroad station was in West Virginia, the lumber operation was across the Potomac River in Maryland.)
A siding was installed at the site of the new mill town in August 1903 and the mill was in operation in 1904.20
A report in the Times in February 1906 was “Wildell Lumber Company is running full blast, doing an extensive — of shipping this year. There is going to be a large handle factory put in here in the spring.” As far as is known, the handle factory did not come to Wildell.21
On August 24, 1909, the mill was destroyed by fire but the company immediately set about to build its replacement. Only “one or two pieces of machinery were undamaged by the fire.” In early October it was reported that mill rebuilding had begun and it should be ready in a few months.22
The company completed their timber operation at Wildell in the fall of 1915. As the reader will find normal for these sawmills in this isolated part of the Greenbrier Valley, Wildell’s distance from the newspapers at Marlinton and in Randolph County, meant these is little history about the operation to be found today. The company also kept itself out of court during operational years.23
An estimate of 125,000,000 feet was given for their lumber production along with 25,000 cords of pulp wood in one source and 110,000,000 feet of hardwoods in a second source.24
During the years of operation there are no records of the company obtaining additional timber to cut other than its original tract.
The 1,000-acre tract on Elk Lick that had been the object of the legal battle between Samuel Woods and John McGraw had become jointly owned by Wildell and Gilfillan, Neil and Company. It was partitioned between these two companies in January 1925, with Wildell receiving 536 acres. A number of the lots at Oxley were purchased.25 by who? why?
The uncut timber remaining on the headwaters of Glady and Laurel Forks was sold in October 1924 to the Glady Manufacturing Company for $30,000. In November 1929 a tract of 11,833 acres was sold for $47,330.04 to the U. S. Forest Service. The remainder of the Wildell Lumber Company’s property, 185 acres, was distributed to members of the Wilson Family in 1930.26
The Wilsons might have been interested in selling their Wildell operation in 1906. Wildell was one of the properties Flint, Erving and Stoner Company official A. W. Echart was to inspect while on a visit to West Virginia in April of that year as possible purchases by FE&S. Echart met with – M. H. ? -Wilson in Elkins, but when he told Wilson he wanted to talk about the possible purchase of the Wildell property, Wilson said they had withdrawn their property from the market. (Echart’s West Virginia trip resulted in the purchase of the Dunlevie operation by FE&S. See Chapter X.)27
The mill was the site for a murder in 1905. On April 8, a simmering feud between John Middleton and Cinton Robinson led to a fight between the two. Middleton had a knife and cut the other man in the arm before they were separated. The wound seemed minor at first, but caused bleeding that led to Mr. Robinson’s death. He received medical treatment at Wildell and was gotten to the Elkins hospital, but died there early the next morning, at age 24. The two men were members of the crew working on the mill dock, moving lumber away from the mill to the drying piles. Middleton was indicted by the Pocahontas County Grand Jury for voluntary manslaughter in June and the trial was held in October. It began on 12th and went to the jury that day. The jurors deliberated until the next day and found Middleton guilty as charged. He was sentenced to five years in prison.28
A fatal accident occurred on the railroad at Wildell on February 15, 1906. The engine of the log train, as it was coming into the mill area, ran into some cars. Harold Tinney, who was riding on the front of the locomotive, had his legs mashed by the logs on the first car. He was taken to the Elkins hospital the following day but died from his injuries on the 17th. His estate filed suit against the company in — 190- but it was dismissed on June 2, 1908, upon evidence the company had paid $500 to his estate in February 1908.29
Frederick Nelson was fatally injured in late February 1909 by a falling limb, which fractured his skull in two places. He was taken by special train to the Davis Memorial Hospital in Elkins where died three days later, on March 9. The location of the accident was not given in the news account.30
In August 1909 an Elkins paper carried a report that an employee of the Wildell Lumber Company died in Elkins after being run over by a boxcar making a “flying switch” at Wildell. The name was not in the report and date is not clear, but either the 18th or the 25th. (A “flying switch” involved putting an uncoupled car into motion and letting the momentum carry it onto a side track.)31
Burt Dilley survived an accident at the mill on August 9, 1909, that probably should have resulted in his death. He was caught in a belt and carried around the shafting for three revolutions, hitting heavy timbers as he went. Both legs were badly broken, collar bone and two ribs fractured, skull split open, and suffered deep cuts on his back. He lay in the Elkins hospital for nineteen weeks but made a remarkable recovery and was reported to be about on crutches in April of the following year.32
Locomotives
Two engines are known to have operated on the logging railroad at Wildell:
Shay CN 859 1904 28 tons 2 trucks No. 1
Shay CN 1595 1905 33 tons 2 trucks No. 2
Both engines came new to Wildell.33
In March 1917 American Lumberman magazine had an ad offering for sale by Wildell Lumber Company Shay No. 1 and a Barnhart loader.34
Mill
The rebuilt mill was equipped with a Allis-Chalmers band saw and a McDonough vertical resaw. The facility also included a lath mill and a planing mill.35
After leaving his operation at Hosterman in bankruptcy, Theodore G. Hosterman had a short-lived lumbering job near Wildell. – no timber deed found in P. Co – check Rand. Co.
In January 1910 there was a news note in the Times: “T. G. Hosterman will have his dimension mill ready for operation in a few days. He will manufacture furniture stock, utilizing oak boades [sic] which heretofore have almost been a waste product of the mills. Mr. Hosterman is an experienced mill man, a hard worker and will make a success of his venture.” In March of 1912 there was a news report that Hosterman had started his mill at Wildell.36
1910 news item probably has no connection with Wildell, but where? the news item is under “Personal Mention” there is a map with an unidentified mill near Wildell
However, a lawsuit filed in January 1913 indicates the operation was underway before this date. The lawsuit was filed against Hosterman by Samuel J. Hevener and T. V. Hevener and alleged Hosterman had made a settlement with them for $888.65 at the end of February 1912 for work done in cutting and skidding timber. Since that time a part of the debt had been paid, but they were still owed $469.57. Adding interest, the suit claimed Hosterman now owed $494.22 to the Heveners. The suit also implied the lumbering at Wildell was finished, as the Heveners further alleged Hosterman’s only assets were “one pair of old crippled horses of very little value and a stock of dimension lumber now in their mill yard near Wildell . . .” Hosterman was also alleged to be shipping this lumber, “with intent, as this affiant verily believes, to hinder, delay and defraud” the Heveners.37
In his reply, Hosterman questioned how the Heveners arrived at the amount they were owed. He alleged not only was a settlement not agreed to, he had a claim against the logging contractors for the manner it which they did the work for him. He alleged since the settlement was supposed to have been made, he has determined the damages to be in the amount of $1,000, being the difference between the amount of lumber the Heveners claimed they cut versus what was actually cut on the mill by about 200,000 feet. Hosterman alleged the deficiency was due to the failure to butt the logs, cut off rotten ends, and throw away rotten, broken and broken timber that could be sawed. Instead of owing the Heveners money, Hosterman claimed they owed him $631. Hosterman also denied he was moving his property out-of-state and took exception to description of his horses as crippled, noting the team was worth as least $300.38
In his report to the court on the execution of the suit, Sheriff L. S. Cochran reported Hosterman’s property included mill equipment and a number of piles of lumber. Both the sheriff’s report and Hosterman’s statement refer to two mill sets, one 3/4 of mile and the other a little more than a mile from the Western Maryland Railway.39
The only entry in Circuit Court record books on this case is one in January 1913 when the Court noted the lumber in question was “piled in such a manner to be liable to rapid damage” and ordered the Sheriff to pile it in order to give in protection, unless the parties to the suit saw to it.40
The final reference found for this logging operation was a March 1913 trust deed for two horses, stave mill, wagon, sled to secure a $600 note issued by Hosterman.41
Locomotive
There are references to tramways in the court case, but no evidence exists that they were more than horse/gravity powered.
Footnotes
17 PCDB 36, p 207, 9/19/1903, $25,000 in 1 year, $43,818.75 in 2, 3, 4, and 5 years18 RC Miscellaneous Records Book 2, p 215, 9/8/190319 Letter, Merritt Wilson to L. D. Fowler, 9/20/1910, Fowler Collection20 Guthrie, “Mile by Mile;” D. D. Brown papers, Vol. 321 PT, 2/15/190622 Weekly Inter-Mountain, 8/26/1909, 9/23/1909; WVN, 8/28/1909; PT, 9/16/1909, 10/7/1909 (from Randolph Enterprise)23 PT, 10/21/191524 D. D. Brown Papers, Vol. 3; Frank E. Wilson Lbr. Co. how to footnote? from company website25 PCDB 41, p 287, 4/9/1907, 1/4 interest in 1000 acres, DB 51, p 8, 4/21/1914, DB 62, p 367, 1/13/192526 PCDB 62, p 365, 10/10/1924, $7500 paid, $7500 in 1, 2 and 3 years, DB 67, p 15, 11/11/1929, pp 191, 192, 193, 194, all 3/5/1930, DB 68, p 360, 4/10/193027 Letter, J. B. Flint to A. W. Echart, 4/5/1906, in Record for W. Va. Supreme Court of Appeals, W. H. Cobb vs. E. V. Dunlevie, pp 181-184, Echart testimony at —-28 PT, 4/13/1905, 10/19/1905; Randolph Enterprise, 4/12/1905; PCCC, State of West Virginia vs. John Middleton, Common Law Order Book 7, p 330, 6/21/1905, p 345, 10/12 and 13/1905; RC death records29 PT, 2/22/1906; PCCC, Harold L. Tinney’s Admix. vs Wildell Lumber Company, Common Law Order Book 8, p 181, 6/2/190830 PT 3/11/1909, buried in the Maplewood Cemetery (from Elkins News)31 Weekly Inter-Mountain, Elkins, 8/26/190932 WVN, 8/14/1909; PT 4/21/191033 Titan of the Timber, pp 411, 41734 American Lumberman, 3/31/191735 Letter from George Fizer, 4/14/200536 PT, 1/27/1910, RN, 3/15/191237 PCCC, Hevener & Hevener vs. T. G. Hosterman & Bro., the plaintiffs refer to a brother as part of the operation, but Hosterman denied that his brother, Tom Hosterman, was involved, bill of complaint, –38 PCCC, Hevener vs. Hosterman, –39 PCCC, Hevener vs. Hosterman, –40 PCCC, Hevener vs. Hosterman, Common Law Order Book 9, p 221, 1/22/1913 41 PCTDB 8, p 189, 3/5/1913
Logging The Greenbrier Valley 