Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1900-02-02
CONVICTION DIN 4 o o

CONVICTION ON a BOON.
Large Industries Already Established
With Immense Pay Rolls-kotes.
(staff Correspondence Of the spEcrAroR.)
Covington, Va, Feb. 1.-If any Of
our Staunton and Augusta county
readers think that booms are a thing
OF the past. they need only step off one
of the G. & o. fast trains at this place
to be convinced to the contrary. Here
l find every symptom of a real live
healthy boom. The ubiquitous real
estate man accosts you on the street
and politely asks if you wish to drive
over the town. and incidentally he has
for sale "a few choice corner lots"
that are sure to advance. There's the
boarding house landlady, who says
she is sorry but there's not a vacant
room in the house," but she might
put you on a cot in the back hall. for
says she ''every lodging house in town
is full up" And &C it goes, the town
has more people than 1t can house and
the carpenters are on a dead rush. So
there is every manifestation OF an old
time boom. but unlike them this one
has come after the big industries had
been established. In other words the
boom is not on paper, the industries
are here already and hundreds of men
are at work. There's a blast furnace,
q machine shop. Il mammouth tame.
~ and a pulp and paper mill, all Civ
ing employment to from $50 to 500
men each, with a weekly pay roll
running away up into the thousands
of dollars. Of course the paper mill is
the great moving spirit here and is
largely responsible for the commercial
awakening. Its official name IS the
West Virginia Pulp and Paper Co.,
and it is said to be the largest plant of
its kind in the United States, and
therefore the largest in the world.
The buildings and grounds occupy Is
acres of ground and are located on the
banks of jackson river, just north of
the G. & O.'s main line tracks. As yet
the buildings are Incomplete, but the
work Of construction is being rushed
for early spring completion. Already
more than 1880 car loads of material
and machinery have been dumped on
the grounds and yet there are many
hundreds more to follow. More til III
500 men with steam hoist. hammer
and trowel are Strengthening out the
great mass as it towers skyward.
The buildings are all of steel frames.
with brick walls surrounding and are
fire proof. Here everything is big, if
It's the buildings they are the biggest,
If it's a tank its the largest, if it's ma
chinery it's the heaviest OF its kind.
Some idea of the immensely of the work
is obtained when one gazes upward to
the topmost steel airders where the
workmen swarm like ants and from
their dizzy height look like pigmys.
Turning from the music of the ham
mer, / entered the offices of the COM
pany to learn more fully the purposes
of this immense undertaking. The
manager in charge expressed the hope
that with open weather be expected to
begin the manufacture of pulp by
April and paper three months later.
For the uses of its operatives more
than a hundred tenant houses will
soon be in course of construction.
The mill already has big government
contracts and will furnish in large
quantities the card board from which
the U. y. postal cards are printed.
They will also make quantities of
book and writing papers. The lum-
Der from which all this paper is to be
made was purchased some months
since and lies in great forest tracts
along the Greenbrier river, embracing
many thousands of acres. When COM
pleted the mill will have cost a sum
upwards of g. O0. 900. But this is not
all of which Covington boasts, she
claims the largest tannery in the State
with a pay roll numbering 200 men.
A furnace that employs $50 men who
work night and day. machine shops
that employ as many more, and last
but not least a hotel that in it's ap-
pOintments and service would do cred
it to any city in the State. Here we
find in charge as manager of the Inter-
mont, Mr.. b. W. PeytOn, a genial and
worthy successor to his father, the
late and lamented Col. E. G. Peyton.
At the machine shops I found a for
mer Staunt0n boy, E. G. Berkeley, who
is head boOkkeeper there. At a drug
store is W. h. Bailey, formerly with
HOgshead, Hanger & Co., and in fact
our home boys were everywhere over
the town in various lines Of work and
all doing we'll. Among them was f..
b. Butler, barber, E. b. Cox. painter, ]
John l.. Knightly. foreman at foundry,
W. T. Whiteseli, contractor, G. W.
timer, G.. E. Englemar,
R. M. Reynolds. shoemak-
err, Tyler q lesser. confectioners, Capt.
]. r. Paris, Insurance., and Lewis
Chamberlayne, Il. L. Collins, d. F.
Shower, +. L. Humphreys, s. w. Keis-
ter and Kemp Smith all employed J
at the Pulp Mill.
At the Intermont I met Mr.. G.. G..
Gooch, who was just IN from Clarks-
whore hn hos a hin poil.ooI n@~ /
tract amounting to more than 81, 900,
700, construction work on the West
Virginia short line. He is highly
pleased with the business prospects OF
The two Virginias and particularly with
in which town he has great
Incidentally he remarked to me
Il don't know of a place any where
that affords better opportunities for
Young men of merit, than right here
n COvinRton." A. s. M,