212 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



earliest were in the vicinities of Sweet Spring, Union and Sec- 

 ond Creek. From these centers settlements spread in all direc- 

 tions, and before timber had become commercially valuable^ a 

 large proportion of it had been destroyed in the process of 

 clearing the land. Small amounts of lumber were used in the 

 early days in the construction of dwellings, out-buildings, 

 fences, etc. This was manufactured chiefly by hand and by the 

 rude water saw mills, several of which were located on Second 

 creek and other streams of the county. According to Joseph 

 Martin, author of the ''Gazetteer of Virginia and the District 

 of Columbia", there was one steam saw mill running in 1835. 

 No extensive sawing was done by steam, however, until a much 

 later date. 



About the year 1870 buyers came in and took out black 

 walnut, cherry and poplar logs from many, sections, hauling 

 them for shipment to Eonceverte, Fort Spring and Alderson 

 on the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad. In later years large oaks 

 also have been bought along with the other timbers mentioned. 



Since 1880 there has been a more or less active commercial 

 lumber industry in the county. There were but few saw mills 

 in the county before 1890, however, and not a large number 

 until after the year 1900. For the past 10 years there have 

 been operations in almost every section, the 25 or 30 small 

 portable mills cutting "sets" wherever a few thousand feet 

 could be brought together. Lumber from these small mills has 

 been hauled on wagons to various stations on the Chesapeake 

 and Ohio, the Norfolk and Western and the Virginian railroads. 



As a rule the farmers have conducted their part of the - 

 lumber industry in an economical manner, allowing the young 

 and vigorous trees to be cut only from the land that they were 

 soon to clear for cultivation. From the saw mill operator's 

 standpoint the industry has been somewhat wasteful as, in ad- 

 dition to the usual waste of circular mills, they have not had 

 the facilities for utilizing their valuable slabs and other so- 

 called waste materials. 



Among the larger operations that have cut timber in the 

 county were the St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Com- 

 pany, with a large band mill at Ronceverte and the Crimson 



