208 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



John Shisler commenced wagon-making in Morgantown 

 as early as 1802; and 3 years later Kern's carriage shops were 

 built. Fairchild, Lawhead and Company built extensive car- 

 riage works in 1851. 



Robert P. Hennen and Edward Price were manufacturers 

 of furniture, the former as early as 1840 and the latter some 

 years after. 



Before the railroads were built the Monongahela and Cheat 

 rivers furnished the only practical means for the transporta- 

 tion of lumber and logs. The first logs that were cut and sold 

 in the county were floated in rafts on the former river. It is 

 not known in what year rafting began on the river nor who 

 engaged at first in this industry. It is certain, however, that 

 an enormous quantity of timber went out in this way. It is 

 said that fleets of logs could be seen almost any time, especially 

 during high water, for many years after the close of the Civil 

 War. A number of the citizens of the county were interested 

 25 years ago in buying and selling logs that were delivered in 

 rafts to Brownsville and other points below. Some of the men 

 who engaged in rafting logs in later years were Geo. W. John- 

 son, Thornton Pickenpaugh, John W, Corrothers, '*Gus" Bar- 

 ker, Simon W. Boyers, and J. W. Holland. The three men last 

 named have continued their work, to some extent, almost if not 

 quite to the present time. John and Henry Sidwell and others 

 ran logs on the Cheat river from the Beaver Hole at the Pres- 

 ton line and from other points below. Logs, both hewed and 

 round, were often hauled for a distance of several miles on 

 heavy trucks and rafted at the Monongahela river. Samuel T. 

 Wiley, author of the ''History of Monongalia Comity," 

 states that "In 1876 it was estimated that $50,000 worth of 

 timber in logs was floated down the Monongahela river from 

 Monongalia and Harrison counties." 



Practically all the commercial sawing of lumber in the 

 county has been done by portable steam saw mills. These came 

 in about the year I860, though a few were in operation before 

 that time. With the building of the railroad in 1885 these 

 mills became more numerous and have continued to operate in 

 va,rying numbers to the present time. 



The tan-bark peeled before the coming of the railroads was 



