WEST VIRGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



107 



of the State produced a heavier and a more excellent stand of 

 timber. Here in the valleys of the streams and in the numerous 

 rich coves the yellow poplar, sugar maple, oaks, hickories, black 

 walnut, white ash, bass wood, chestnut, cucumber, and many 

 others, grew abundantly. All of Pleasant district, on the north- 

 west, and the drainage basins of First and Second Big runs and 

 Pecks run in Union district on the southwest were also noted 

 for their hardwood forests. Eastward from the Tygarts Valley 

 and Buckhannon rivers there are large areas which are less fer- 

 tile than in the localities mentioned above, and in these the 

 original forests contained fewer species and lighter stands of 

 timber trees. The prevailing timber trees in the eastern part 

 along Laurel ridge were chestnut, locust and chestnut oak on the 

 ridges and flats, with poplars, ashes, cucumbers and others in 

 the rich coves and with hemlock, birches and beech along the 

 streams. 



The Lumber Industry. 



Some sections of the county have been settled for 140 years ; 

 and in these nearly all the timber of the original forests was de- 

 stroyed in clearing the land for cultivation. Before the year 

 1860 most of the residences and out-buildings were made of 

 logs. The small amount of lumber used in an early day was 

 manufactured by hand-operated whip saws and by ''up-and 

 down" water saw mills. There was an abundance of straight- 

 grained yellow poplar, chestnut, red oak and black walnut tim- 

 ber for fence rails, shingles^ boards and puncheons, without 

 using the curly walnuts, knotty oaks and twisted chestnuts, 

 which were all classed together and burned as worthless timber. 



A few of the primitive mills which operated approximately 

 between the years 1845 and 1875 were Shuttlesworth 's mill near 

 Peeltree, Hall's mill, Teter's mill and McCoy's mill, on Buck- 

 hannon river, Kittle 's mill at Georgetown, Stout's mill on Ty- 

 garts Valley river and the Nicola mill at Moatsville. Some of 

 these were at first run by water and later by steam. One of the 

 first stationary steam saw and grist mills in the county was 

 built about the year 1856 at Peeltree by John Maxwell. This 

 mill sawed lumber for local use during a period of 80 or 40 

 years. 



