© Jerry F. Couch

AUTHOR’S NOTE: THE FOLLOWING LETTER AND PHOTOGRAPH WERE SENT TO THE CLINCH VALLEY TIMES BY REMIRE SUTHERLAND, AND WERE FEATURED IN THE CVT’S NOVEMBER 20, 1975 EDITION.

Dear Mrs. Gregory:

I enjoy your feature “Remember the Good Old Days” very much. I thought perhaps some of your younger readers would get a kick out of knowing a little about the lifestyle of a mountain lumber camp. Hope you can use the photo. It was taken around 1921. This is the McClure planing mill operation of the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company. I am sure your neighbor Mrs. Virginia Meade remembers a lot about the Ritter people as her brother Jim was President of the company at his death.

The building with the smokestack and steam was the planing mill and drying kiln. Here, some of the world’s finest flooring was made. Parquet flooring was used in many homes of royalty in Europe.

The founder of the world’s largest hardwood company was W. M. Ritter, born Feb. 19, 1864 on a farm near Hughesville, Penn. In 1890, he went to West Virginia with $1700.00 and began the lumber operation that was to mean so much to the mountaineers of five states and the world. The history of the W. M. Ritter Lumber Co. is the story of a great man and a great people who, by friendship, mutual admiration, and consideration molded the world’s largest lumber empire. He gave away a personal fortune of over seven million dollars [see additional info below] to his faithful employees. The pride and joy of his operations was the McClure plants, the planing mill, and the double band mill located one-half mile north of the planing mill. The little flag stop as shown in the photo served a schedule of four passenger trains daily. It was also known to the local boys as the “exchange house.” Thousands of dollars changed hands to the musical click of the dice and the soft riffle of pasteboards.

Lumber hicks enjoyed the best of food at the boarding house, shown in the lower left corner. The food was prepared by Indian, Negro, and white cooks. All cakes, pies, and mouth-watering biscuits were made in the big kitchen from Ballard Flour. Incidentally, I have the giant rolling pin, and by conservative estimates it has rolled over a million biscuits.

The small box-like buildings below the road are not the popular “catalog outhouses.” They are coal bins. Employees got all the coal they could use for $1.00 per month. The company generated its own electric power, but it was turned off at 10 p.m. Then, it was either hit the hay or dig out the pine knots.

The houses were kept freshly painted with white and green. Sidewalks spanned the entire camp. The only time a lady was subject to getting her dainty button shoes muddy was when she crossed the dirt road.

Steam for the mill’s boilers was produced by burning sawdust. Today we hear a lot about about Vermont planning to chew up their surlus trees and slabs for fuel. W. M. Ritter operated his mills in 1921 on this principle. Sawdust from the cutoff machines was blown through pipes to the boiler room and stored in huge tank-like containers. Men shoveled the dust into the furnaces. Even the ends and scraps of flooring were chewed up by the “hogs” [a mechanical grinder] and funneled into the boiler room.

The little, narrow dirt road was either too dusty or too muddy. The people living above the road had a ringside seat when the first automobile came through. Another treat was to watch the cowboys from Ramsey, Smith, or Sutherland ridges race their tough mountain horses through the camp, rain or shine. This was a fine display of horsemanship, especially just after they had viewed a silent movie at the community building starring Hoot Gibson, Tom Mix, or Willam S. Hart.

To many of us, these were the Good Old days.

(signed) Remire Sutherland

______________________________________

[BELOW] From the News & Observer of Raleigh, NC – December 27, 1924:

GIVES FORTUNE TO HIS CO-WORKERS

Lumber Magnate to Distribute Two to Three Millions To His Employees

Columbus, Ohio, Dec. 26 (By The Associated Press) — A Christmas gift of a possible value between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000 was announced here yesterday.

William McClellan Ritter, of Washington, D. C., formerly of Columbus, and founder of the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company, the executive offices of which are here, is the donor, and 125 men and women who reside here and in 12 other States are the beneficiaries.

Mr. Ritter is turning back to the men and women, most of whom are employees of the company, approximately one-fourth of the capital stock of the corporation that bears his name.

The shares that will be divided number 12,500, and have a par value of $1,250,000. As the stock of the corporation is closely held, no exact approximation of the real value of the gift could be obtained, but local bankers expressed the opinion that it might run between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000.

The stock will be held under a trust agreement for the beneficiaries, but the gift is without restrictions. The trust will be executed when those who will share it meet in eight regional gatherings on Saturday. These will be held in New York, Philadelphia, Columbus, Bluefield, West Va., Hughesville, Pa., Washington, D. C., Colleton, S. C., and Asheville, N. C.

Of the list of beneficiaries 94 are officers and employees of the company. The balance of the list includes relatives and close personal friends of Mr. Ritter.

The employees of the company receiving stock include many who were with Mr. Ritter in his early struggles in West Virginia to gain a foothold in the lumber industry. The Ritter Company, now declared to be one of the largest in the world, manufactures hardwood lumber.

The executives of the distribution without any restriction is said by Columbus associates of Mr. Ritter to follow out his often-expressed beliefs that such distribution of property is more beneficial to the recipient than if surrounded by conditions that would prevent freedom of action.

“For some time,” said the announcement of the gift which came from the executive offices of the company here, “Mr. Ritter has made it plain to those working with him that he is not in sympathy with the modern practice of men of wealth in leaving their fortunes to be administered in the promotion of individual views respecting political philosophy, economic theory, industrial policy, or similar issues.”

Born at Hughesville, Pa. during the closing years of the Civil War, Mr. Ritter early saw the latent possibilities of the lumber industry in West Virginia, then an undeveloped empire of natural wealth. He formally organized the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company in 1900. The company now has timber holdings in Southwest Virginia, southern West Virgin, eastern Kentucky and western North Carolina.

______________________________________

Washington, D. C. Dec. 26 — William M. Ritter, founder of the W. M. Ritter Lumber Company of Columbus, Ohio, was publicly commended today by President Coolidge for his action in giving to employees of his company a quarter of the capital stock of his concern as a Christmas present.

Mr. Coolidge, on reading the announcement of Mr. Ritter’s action in today’s newspaper, sent him this letter:

“I have been very much interested in reading of the fine thing you have done for those in your employ at Christmas time. Such acts of generosity cannot help but lead to better cooperation and understanding between the employers and employees, and you are to be commended for the fine example you have shown.”

______________________________________

From the economic highs of the prosperous 1920’s to the depths of the Great Depression. Even strong companies like Ritter Lumber felt the pinch. New construction had stalled and with it, the demand for lumber. The following article appeared in the November 1, 1930 edition of the Roanoke Times.

Fortunately, the country rebounded and the Ritter Lumber Company rebounded along with it. The following article from the March 3, 1940 edition of the Roanoke Times describes a celebration of the company’s 50th anniversary:

*********