274 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



centage of the rich land, where the best timber grew, had been 

 cleared and the trees destroyed. Following are some of the 

 timber trees mentioned by the older residents of Summers 

 county : 



White oak — The principal timber. 



Chestnut oak — Common on dry ridges. 



Poplar — Not generally abundant but good on Madams 



creek and in some other localities. 

 Red oak — Common in rich ground. 

 Basswood — Common. 

 Buckeye — Common. 

 Walnut — Common. 

 Hickory — Common. 

 Ash — Common. 

 Cucumber — Not common. 

 Beech — Not common. 

 Birch — ^Not common. 

 Maples — Not common. 



White pine — Small areas on Bluestone river. 

 Pitch pine — Occasionally seen on high ground. 

 Hemlock — Of good quality and common along streams. 



^ The Lumber Industry. 



The building of the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad 

 through the county in 1872 marked the beginning of an active 

 lumber industry. Before that time," says Judge James H. 

 Miller, of Hinton, there had been no shipment of logs or sawed 

 lumber — ^not even of walnut. All the trees that had been cut 

 were either burned or made into fence rails etc. by the pioneer 

 farmers, or else manufactured by the rudest methods then em- 

 ployed into rough boards for domestic use." 



A large quantity of the best oak has been manufactured 

 into split and sawed staves. Most of these have been sold to 

 the Standard Oil Company through Theodore Astor, their pur- 

 chasing agent. The sawed stave industry began about the year 

 1873. In those days large numbers of staves were hauled in 

 wagons from the stave saw mills, working back from the rail- 

 road, and shipped from the various stations. The Doan Cooper- 



