A Peek into Summers County’s Past: A Local Photographer

FOREST HILL W.Va. (Hinton News) – I was given this photograph and several others by my friend and ex-Summers County teacher Tom Hutchison. His grandfather was Oscar Hutchison, Oscar had a photography studio in Hinton around 1900. We have not been able to track down its exact location.

This photograph was taken by him in 1924 at Forest Hill, WV. It is of a steam tractor. On the back of the photograph, he made a note that reads, “This was one in the Forest Hill Community in 1924. He underlined “one” to show the rarity of this photograph at that time.

This photo reminds me of a story Richard Leftwich, who owns Hinton Hardware, recently told me. You see, my great-grandfather Earl Jones was married to Richard’s Aunt Ruth Smith Jones, who became my step-great-grandmother.

Richard told me that he had always heard the story told to him that Earl, who worked for the Greyhound bus company in Charleston, West Virginia, during World War II, was able to save the used tires from the buses. Remember, tires were rationed during World War II, along with many other necessities.

Getting them for your car or truck was hard enough, but for a tractor in Summers County, it was next to impossible. So Earl took the tires he saved and, with his brother-in-law Malcom Smith, Ruth’s brother, fashioned them around an old steel wheeled tractor.

Allowing them to have one of, if not the only, rubber tired tractor in Summers County at the time. You see, the 1920s was only two decades before WWII, and that is when the steel-wheeled tractors really became popular. The farmers in Summers County were doing good to have a used steel wheeled tractor during the war, let alone a new rubber tired one.

So Earl and Malcom were quite the talk around the county once the word got around about what they had done. Ha. And you have to think, too, that during that time, most of Summers County was filled with small farms. And you came into the city of Hinton to get your basic needs. 

I digress. Tom Hutchison has his grandfather’s wooden camera and tripod in his collection. He told me that when Oscar passed away at an early age of only 49 due to a stroke, he owned the Dodge Brothers car dealership in Ronceverte. It was just too hard for someone to make a living as a local photographer at the turn of the century in Summers County.