WEST VIEGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



245 



Other operators who deserve mention in connection with the 

 portable saw mill industry prior to the coming of the railroads, 

 are J. N. White, Jiles Sharp, Andy TVooddell, S. M. Gay, Frank 

 Dilley and N. S. Duffield. 



Most of the valuable black walnut that grew on the low- 

 lands of the county was cut and floated out on the Greenbrier 

 during the decade from 1880 to 1890. 



Considerable white pine was cut, not only by means of the 

 whip saw and water saw mills before mentioned, but for fence 

 rails, shingles, puncheons, hewed frame timbers, and for all 

 manner of wooden articles used about the homes of the early 

 settlers. During a visit to the white pine region about Hunters- 

 ville in the fall of 1909 Dr. A. D. Hopkins, of Washington, D. 

 C, was informed that not less than 100 miles of worm fence 

 had been built of white pine rails in that immediate vicinity. 



The first white pine that was cut in large quantities for 

 commercial purposes was floated out of the county in the early 

 seventies by Col. Cecil Clay, who, in company with James 

 Waugh, made an examination of the timber in the white pine 

 belt during a trip up the Greenbrier in 1867. His work was done 

 principally by negroes and oxen. 



The Greenbrier Independent of March 11, 1871, gives an 

 account of the incorporation of the Greenbrier River Boom, 

 Lumber, Iron, Land, and Manufacturing Company, with James 

 Caldwell, John A. Hunter, S. A. M. Syme, S. S. Thompson, R. 

 P. Lake, S. C. Ludington, R. F. Dennis, Matthew Wallace, B. F. 

 Harlow, and Jesse Bright, as members of the firm. The oper- 

 ations of this company followed the work of Col. Clay and con- 

 tinued until about the year 1882, when it was succeeded by the 

 St. Lawrence Boom and Manufacturing Company, which at that 

 time built its booms at Ronceverte. Much of the lumber was cut 

 by Smith and Whiting and Whiting and Denny, and by Col. 

 Dan. O'Connell, who afterward organized the Cumberland Lum- 

 ber Company. 



The Chesapeake and Ohio railroad reached the county in 

 1899, was extended up to Cass in 1901, to Durbin in 1902, and 

 to Winterbum in 1905. The Coal and Iron railroad was extend- 

 ed from Elkins to Durbin in 1903. Before the building of these 

 railroads only a small beginning had really been made in the 



