Photo from historical society archives Stacks of sawed boards are drying in the vast lumber yard of the Parkersburg Mill Company. This was the largest lumber mill in the area.

Parkersburg mill now running

The old reliable Parkersburg Mill Company had some trouble for a time with the costly new machinery they lately put in, but it is running smoothly now, and they are working full time to catch up with their orders. They are shipping immense quantities of sawed lumber of various kinds, such as shingle lath, plank, etc. to the headwaters of the Muskingum River in Ohio.

One of the boilers at that mill sprung a leak yesterday, which necessitated the shutting down of the mill for a few hours, but everything is all right now and running full blast.

Excerpt from the Parkersburg Daily State Journal

May 23, 1889

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Logs going out

Word was received here today that a boom near the mouth of the West Fork broke last night on account of the sudden rise in the Kanawha and the side streams and that a small number of logs got away, which are passing out this afternoon, though many of them were caught on their way down.

The boom at Creston and others along there, in which there is a large quantity of timber, are holding intact. These contain the timber belonging to Parkersburg Mill Company, the Nicolette Lumber Company, Vanzant & Kichin, R.B. Newman, C.C. Bee and several others.

On the rise two weeks ago, it is said that fully ten thousand logs came out of the side streams into the Kanawha, and all were saved and floated into the booms. It was reported here this afternoon that another good run of logs is coming out of the side streams, as the streams are all very high.

The Parkersburg Sentinel

Dec. 25, 1890

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Men and boys kept busy

The Kanawha river for several miles up was lined all the morning yesterday with men and boys in skiffs and john-boats catching ties and logs. Sudden rises, which cause general havoc with the big booms, are great big picnics for these men and boys. They are allowed by law 25 and 50 cents salvage on logs. Some men caught at least one hundred logs. Not a bad days work.

Excerpt from the Parkersburg Daily State Journal

July 10, 1891

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Keeping tab

on the employees

The Parkersburg Mill Co. has placed a time clock in their office which does away with the services of a time keeper.

It is quite an ingenious piece of mechanism and does its work correctly. Each of the 150 employees is furnished with a numbered key and his name is placed under this number on an indicator. Each employee is required to register four times a day, at 7 and 12 a.m. and 1 and 6 p.m. They insert the key in the dial of the clock at the number corresponding with their particular key and they are registered on the indicator.

The Parkersburg Sentinel

April 27, 1892

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Bob Enoch is the president of the Wood County Historical Society. The group meets at 7p.m. on the last Monday of each month in the Summers Auditorium at the Wood County Public Library on Emerson Avenue. They do not meet in December. For more information, contact P.O. Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.