316 



CONDITIONS BY COUNTIES. 



Big run and Bull creek, emptying farther north. The princi- 

 pal tributaries of the Little Kanawha, named from its mouth 

 to the Wirt county line, are Neal run, Tygart creek, and Slate 

 creek, flowing in from the south, and Worthington creek. Still- 

 well creek, and Walker creek, flowing in from the north. 



Original Timber Conditions. ■ 



The white oak and other hardwoods of the Ohio and Little 

 Kanawha river valleys grew in great abundance and were of 

 excellent quality in this county. Yellow pine, and other soft- 

 woods in smaller quantities, such as hemlock, white pine, and 

 pitch pine, grew locally through the hilly sections. 



The Lumber Industry. 



Parkersburg has been, and is still, the center of a lively 

 lumber industry. This fact is due to the city's situation at 

 the mouth of the Little Kanawha river — the natural outlet and 

 transportation channel for the vast forests of white oak and 

 other hardwoods that once grew within its basin. Eafts of logs 

 have been common on the river for 50 years, or more, and 

 Parkersburg has been the headquarters for the buyers of logs, 

 and lumber, and cross-ties, cut in the counties which are drained 

 by this stream. 



]\Iany mills have operated in the county during the last 

 75 years. ]\Iost of them have moved out and their names have 

 been forgotten; but a few remain to the present day, the larger 

 of which are engaged in sawing from lands bought up and held 

 for their timber, and the smaller in sawing cross-ties and lum- 

 ber from the smaller and more inferior trees. 



One mill in particular should be mentioned in this connec- 

 tion, namely, the plant of the Parkersburg Mill Company. 

 According to Mr. Daniel Gould, one of the original partners in 

 the Parkersburg Mill Company, the mill had its beginning as 

 early as 1825 when a sash saw mill was built and operated near 

 the present site. Who owned the original mill is not known. 

 In 1853, however, Daniel Gould became a partner with William 

 B. Caswell, who had moved from Massachusetts to Parkersburg 



