GLENRAY, (Hinton News) – It is time for another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Every week, a local history collector, William Jones, talks about items from his collection and their historical significance. Many of the pieces come from businesses that no longer exist. In this edition, we are discussing the Glenray Lumber Company.
Lumber companies are somewhat commonplace in the Mountain State. However, few know that one once operated in Summers County, approximately one mile from Alderson. Jones said, “Everyone has heard of the large lumber companies that supply lumber to big box stores like Lowes. However, back in the day, there were also smaller lumber companies, like the Meadow River Lumber Company in Rainelle, W.Va., that eventually sold out to Georgia-Pacific Corporation. Even on a more local scale, there were companies situated around West Virginia. One of which was the Glenray Lumber Company in Glenray, WV the early 1900s in Summers County.”
According to Jones, “the Glenray Lumber Company sawed their lumber primarily in Clayton, W.Va. and brought it down the mountain by horse and buggy in its early days to Griffiths Creek, W.Va.” Talking about the area, he continued by saying, “A little known fact was that the community of what is now known as Griffiths Creek was known as ‘Santifee’. This is because in the mid to late 1800s there was a community that consisted of several people, they had a general store, and a post office was even established. Santifee is what the post office was named. It was derived from ‘Santa Fe’. Santa Fe is the site of the oldest public building in the United States and the site of the country’s oldest community celebration, Santa Fe Fiesta, having been formed in 1712.”
There are two different spellings of the town: Santafee and Santifee. According to Kenny Hamill’s 1945 publication West Virginia Place Names: Their Origin and Meaning, Including the Nomenclature of the Streams and Mountains, the Geographic Board ruled in 1933 that it should be Santafee. This ruling leads many to believe the term is a combination of the Spanish words santa and fe, meaning holy and faith, respectively.
“The lumber was brought to the roadway that is now Route 3 and 12, where it was then forwarded across the river to the community of Glenray. It was here where the lumber was loaded on railroad cars and shipped out.”
Fascinatingly, a train once ran in the area to aid with the movement of the lumber. Jones said, “Another little known fact of this area is there used to be a train that ran all the way to Keeney’s Knob, WV. The lumber company installed the train tracks and ran trains across the mountain to carry their lumber that had been cut by a big band mill they had installed in 1912. If you know where to look, there is still evidence of the train track that once ran through this mountainous area of Summers County.”
Adding a personal connection to the piece, several relatives of Jones worked for the Glenray Lumber Company. He said, “My Great Great Grandfather David Silas Thomas ran a crew of men for the lumber company and operated one of the various camps the company had on the mountain. The train would be utilized to carry supplies to the farthest camp that was on Kenneys Mountain. Two of the men that David Silas had working on his crew was my Great Great Uncle Tom Harrah, who I had previously mentioned in my article about the Riverside Rest map. And his son, my Great Grandfather Fred O. Thomas.”
“Fred later worked as a fireman for the railroad, which moved him, his wife, and 11 children around to various states between the 1930s until he lost his life on the job in Ronceverte, W.Va., in 1951,” Jones stated. “His railroad desk sat untouched in my Great Grandmother’s house on Muddy Creek Mountain, W.Va., until my mother and I assisted one of his daughters cleaning it out in 2012.”
During the process of cleaning out the desk, Jones discovered photos of the Glenray Lumber Company. He said, “It was at this time I uncovered these early photos of the Glenray Lumber Company and this stack of time record books that had belonged to David Silas where he kept the time for his crew that worked under him. It is noteworthy to point out that the booklet on the top of the stack is from Aham & Reynolds Santifee, W. Va. Medicines, Dry Goods, Groceries. This is the only thing I have ever came across during my time of collecting that references the community of Santifee.”
This brings us to the end of another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Have you heard of the Glenray Lumber Company?
If you have a story from Summers County’s history that you would like to share? Send us an email at news@hintonnews.com.
