WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



59 



plateau and valley lands of Monroe county. Saw mills were 

 brought to the settlements nearest the mountains first, but the 

 dates given above are only a little in advance of the saw mills 

 in any case. In fact, if we were to continue as above, to traje 

 the progressive settlements step by step, from the very first up 

 to the year 1880, we would have a reasonably accurate history 

 of the progress of these mills. 



The first saw mill west of the mountains is said to have 

 been built near the town of St. George in Tucker county by 

 John Minear in the year 1776. This was a sash saw mill and 

 stood on Mill run, a small tributary of Cheat river. 



The Gazetteer of Virginia and the District of Columbia, 

 written by Joseph Martin, contains one of the first available 

 lists of saw mills in what is now West Virginia. According to 

 this there were 40 or more water saw mills running in 1835. 

 These were distributed among the counties as follows: 





8 mills. 





1 mill. 





1 mill. 



Wood 



2 mills. 







Fayette 



2 mills. 









9 mills. 





6 mills. 





2 mills. 



It is stated in The West Virginia Hand Book and Immi- 

 grants' Guide (J. H. Diss Debar, 1870) that ''As late as 1860 

 Ji of the lumber consumed in the state and exported, was manu- 

 factured by water-power.'' 



The most extensive sash saw mill operations in the state 

 were conducted on Middle Island creek in Pleasants, Tyler and 

 Doddridge counties. Further mention is made of these opera- 

 tions, under the counties mentioned, in Chapter Six. 



In one sense this old-time industry was of more actual ben- 

 efit to the citizens of the state than that carried on with modern 



