By Beverly Belcher Woody
Ely-Thomas Lumber Company
When someone mentions the lumber plant in Stuart, they are probably referring to the International Paper plant, which used to be Masonite and originally began as Stuart Lumber Company. But did you know there was another lumber company in Stuart during the 1930s and 1940s?
That company was Ely-Thomas Lumber Company, an Appalachian timber and logging operation primarily based in Fenwick, Nicholas County, West Virginia. For a time, however, it played an important role in the life and economy of Stuart, Virginia.
It is hard to imagine today, but the Ely-Thomas Lumber Company was located in the vicinity of where Stuart Family Restaurant and the shopping center are now located. Years ago, that entire area underwent a huge metamorphosis. The lumber mill ponds were filled in to build Druthers Restaurant and the Sky City and Lowe’s Foods shopping center.
Joanne Lang Shirley shared that her father, Claude Russell Lang, and her grandfather, Gilbert (Bert) Lang, came from West Virginia to Stuart in 1936 or 1937 with the Ely-Thomas Lumber Company. Joanne recalled, “There were a group of men who came from West Virginia with the Ely-Thomas Lumber Company. Some names that come to mind include Ernest Curry, Andy Gregory, Dana Haymond, J. T. Hunt, and Coy Thomas.”
The arrival of the company brought men, families, work, and movement into Stuart. It also connected Patrick County to the larger Appalachian lumber industry that stretched into West Virginia and beyond.
The Enterprise, Volume 61, Number 32, dated 12 August 1937, reported the beginning of operations in Stuart:
“The Ely-Thomas Lumber Company, which has been assembling its Band Sawmill for operation for some time, began work here July 26 and began with a force of 36 men. This Company, with main office at Camden-on-Gauley, W. Va., where they also operate a Band Sawmill, is prepared to do work of the best type. When they are working on a productive basis, which they expect soon to do, will produce from twenty-five to thirty thousand feet of lumber daily. This is an asset to Stuart and surrounding community.”
By the following year, the company had formalized its business presence in Virginia. The Richmond News Leader, Saturday, August 27, 1938, page 17, printed the following notice:
“Certificate of Authority—Ely Thomas Lumber Company, a West Virginia corporation. Principal office in Virginia, Stuart. H. F. Howard, agent in charge of business. Maximum capital, 1,000 shares common without par value and $150,000 preferred. To conduct a lumber business. J. Murray Hooker, attorney, Stuart.”
H. F. Howard’s name appears again in the newspaper accounts as the local manager and superintendent of the Stuart operation. In the Roanoke Times on April 2, 1939, he shared details of a remarkable yellow poplar felled in Patrick County. The article stated:
‘We recently felled, on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge in Patrick County, a yellow poplar tree containing 14,224 board feet. The butt log measured 72 inches at the small end and 96 inches at the large end, the log being 16 feet long. We cut several boards, from this tree, 4 inches thick, 42 inches wide and 16 feet long, each containing 224 board feet.
‘A short distance from where this giant stood, we felled another poplar “sprout” containing better than 10,000 board feet. At one time we had in our pond, here at the mill, 19 logs that measured, at the small end, from 42 inches to 72 inches in diameter.’”
A few weeks later, the Martinsville Bulletin of April 28, 1939, carried news that the mill was preparing to reopen after a shutdown caused in part by difficult road conditions.
“Stuart, April 28—H. F. Howard, manager of the Ely-Thomas Lumber Company, announced today that the band saw mill, located here, will resume operation May 2 after being shut down for several months, due in part to the fact that bad roads made it impossible to get logs to the mill.
There are three quarters of a million feet of logs on the yards at this time, with a steady supply coming in.
This company is the largest manufacturing industry in the county and employs a total of 200 men at the mill and in the woods.
According to Mr. Howard, $50,000 was paid in wages, $40,000 for supplies and $25,000 for transportation to and from the mill last year, and all indications are that the figures will be equally as large this year.
More laborers will not be needed at this time as positions will be filled by men who were employed at the time the mill stopped operation.”
This article is especially important because it shows the size and impact of Ely-Thomas Lumber Company in Patrick County. At that time, it was described as the largest manufacturing industry in the county, employing a total of 200 men. Behind those numbers were teamsters, sawyers, and loggers who worked very hard to provide for themselves and their families.
The history of lumber work also reminds us how dangerous the industry could be. The work was hard, physical, and often risky.
The Enterprise, Friday, June 30, 1939, page 1, reported:
Funeral Saturday for Stuart Worker
“Stuart, June 30—Funeral services for Cecil David Nethken, 24, local lumber worker who died Thursday of injuries received when he was crushed between a truck and tractor last week, will be held at Mt. Zion, West Va., it was learned today.
Young Nethken succumbed to severe injuries at the Stuart hospital about 9:30 Thursday morning.
Surviving are the deceased’s parents, three brothers, and three sisters. The deceased was employed by the Ely-Thomas Lumber company.”
Today, little remains in the landscape to show where the Ely-Thomas Lumber Company once stood in Stuart. The mill ponds are gone. The logs, saws, and daily sounds of industry have faded into memory. But for those who know the history, that area near Stuart Family Restaurant and the shopping center holds a story of timber, work, migration, and change.
There is a wonderfully helpful Facebook group for people interested in the history of the lumber company called Ely-Thomas, Cherry River Boom & Lumber, B&O Railroads in Nicholas County WV. Mr. Dan Bragg of West Virginia shared wonderful photos of the company scrip, which is pictured above.
Ely-Thomas Lumber Company may have been headquartered in West Virginia, but for a time it became part of Patrick County’s story. It brought workers from other mountain communities, gave employment to local men, filled mill ponds with giant timber, and helped shape the industrial life of Stuart during the 1930s and 1940s.
And though the mill is long gone, the story remains.
For questions, comments, or story ideas, please contact Woody at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com or 276-692-9626.
