Appalachian History

Report on Construction Products Plant, Mar 6, 1920
West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company
Covington Va

"Herewith picture taken 3:15 p.m. 3-4-20 of construction grounds taken from a point lower down on the sand cliff as the one taken 1:30 p.m. 2-26-20.

"You can notice hardly any difference in it from last week’s picture. This picture shows all the building walls for the Soda Mill run except a short piece south end of Digester Room which we expect to run Monday; and the wall between Pan Room and Screen Room which is still under the track used for loading pyrites cinder, and Mr. Lamb is doing all in his power to push this along.

"For the Evaporator Building we dug a trench 3 feet wide (18 inches on each side of centre line of bolts, being about the width of foundation required for this wall. This gave us good information as to the condition of soil for Mr. Wadleigh. That is, we found good, solid clay all around the wall at about El. 8’00”, and the entire inside of the building has about three feet of bark that we will have to take out and replace with suitable fill. The Bleach Room also has about the same amount of bark to be removed. We will take out most of this with the Byers Crane. To date we have received four carloads of steel from Piedmont for the Evaporator Building.

"All grading ready for the Soda Mill siding and we are waiting on the Railroad people. This siding is greatly needed right now.

"We have a good many men now and unless we receive more work soon we will have to lay some off. This we would hate to do as they will get away. We know that Mr. Wadleigh has his hands more than full and is doing all he can. I only make the above remark to let him know exactly the condition we are in. Bridge piers or stack foundation would give us a good job if he has them ready.

"I have marked points of interest on the picture as follows:

1. Storage House
2. Steel for Evaporator Building.
3. Evaporator Buildling Grounds.
4. Lime Sludge

E.G.F."



source: Stephen Nicholson’s Alleghany Highlands http://hometown.aol.com/snickelsn/index.html?f=fs

Says Nicholson: "Whitman Ellis found these old photographs in an garage in Rosedale. They appear to be photographs and text describing progress on the new pulp mill constructed in 1920. I have finer resolution scans of these photographs if anyone is interested. This text is addressed to Mr. W.A.L. (William A. Luke). Note the description below: year/month/day."


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Ice skaters glide on the frozen Jackson River at Covington [VA] in 1897

No wonder these skaters look so carefree! The 1890's brought economic boom to Covington, VA. Population jumped from 704 in 1890 to 2,950 at the turn of the century. The railroad ran fourteen passenger trains daily through Covington and the city was the fourth largest freight paying station on the entire C&O Railroad after Chicago, Cincinnati and Richmond.

The first industries included the Covington Iron Furnace in 1891 (in Sunnymeade) which produced 110 tons of pig iron daily, the steam powered Deford Tannery (near present Superior Concrete Plant) in 1892, the E.M. Nettleton planing mill, and the Covington Machine Shops, which produced coke extractors for use in furnace cleaning in the steel making process. The town also boasted two flour mills, two brick yards and the Alleghany Pin and Bracket Company.

source: www.allhighlands.org/area_history.htm


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