The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1904-03-02
A GREAT luasER PLANT.
James carswsii Visits The Big Belts
Miils...kew Sumter q Thriving Ranu.
featuring viIiaae.--The Work OF
0ne Year.

featuring vi!Iaae...Ihe work OF
0He Year.
Belts Mills Station, three miles
northeast of Sumter, is becoming
quite mill village, and some Of the
folks have given it the name OF New
Sumter.
! very extensive lumbar firm OF Phila-
! delphia, and of national repute, in
vested heavily in timber lands IN
Sumter and other counties, and have
secured ana paid for timber tracts
that will keep mills saving for over
half dozen years and they have con.
| tracted for many more bodies OF
choice pine. Having decided to build
modern mills they sent as representa-
| tive A. W. Adam to plan, erect and
complete modern mills, and build
village and to construct Herewith side
tracks and switches connecting with
| the Atlantic Coast Line, and with
! line Of their own reaching into for
estry.
Mr.. Adam began operations in a
cotton field on the 18th Of April, 1908,
| and started manufacturing in the
middle of September. He has built
nine mile standard guage solid bed
railway believing that a first class
road is economy Of time and machln-
cry.
The switches at the plants include
double tracks to the planning mills
and the saw mill tracks Join them be-
yond, and other tracks go through the
planning mills to the dry kilns, dis
.pensing with repeated handling Of
! material. There are three wells and
three tanks. Well No. l, is lOx20
and 20 feet deep and is running over
La Jet attached throws water into the
planning mill boilers, and injectors
! have connection with the big ire
| tank, capacity 10000 gallons and 40
feet high. There is also a 5000 gall
lon tank for the planning mill, and
another of like capacity with Well
No, 2, at the saw mill, and it is 6x1e
land Is feet deep and is on high
ground. Well No. 8 is 6x16 and 16
| feet deep and Wells No. l and 3 are
attached to fire pumps.
The saw mill is a double circular
and gang edger with engine 10 b. p.
| and battery of two boilers E2o b. p.
and the planning mill engine is 125
and the two boilers 80 h. P. each.
/ Capacity saving 10000 feet per day,
and planning mill Is, 600 feet, up to 16x
20. and farming out down to the finest
/ mouldings. From the saw mill to the
dressing machinery is skidway, and
platforms and all about the mills are
conyeniences availed Of which bring
manual labor to minimum.
Additions will be made to the plan
| ing mill for another machine aud COM
modious shedroms.
| With the mills are 81 acres, and the
| village is growing. The boarding
house is two-stories with ten rooms,
/ and there are half a dozen good-slzed
cottages and dozen more will be built
for white folks, and there are 15 for
the colored population.
The Offices, two rooms, are wen
equipped, and the store is being
stocked and will carry So, 500 to $4,000
| worth of goods. The machine shop
| and blacksmith shop is up-and re-
| markably good stable with box stalls
and warehouse for car loads of hay,
oats and feed generally. The company
| has about 40 mules-and the mill
crews number IS men while in the
| woods are SO more-jobbers-snakers,
teamsters-and leaders, and the tur-
pentine plant operating 8 to II miles
east of the mills employs 80 men.
Taking capacity into consideration
there are not better planned and bet
ter constructed mills in the State than
those of Charles NJ. Belts & Co.,
Sumter, S. G.
Charles M. Belts & Co., have head
quarters at Philadelphia with exten-
sive lumber and other interests. They
also have big lumber yards at Buffalo,
n. Y. Cypress shingle mills at Viii
mington, N. c.. and timber in differ
ent Southern States over which they
do wholesale business as we'll as in
| the north.
The senior partner is hale and
hearty gentleman of 60. The eldest
son B. Franklin Belts is general
manager and his brothers William L.
ano Charles L. Belts are busy with
clerical duty at the Philadelphia Office,
and Cs Walter Belts their cousin bas
charge of the Buffalo end of the busl-
ness.
A.. ". Adam the manager here has a
lovely home in Reading, Pa, where
his family presently resides, but they
Will become welcomed acquisitions
to Sumter society before long.
Mr. Adam began the lumber bushes
at the bottom Of the ladder, has been
associated with the Belts interests
since 1897, when he became their
manager at Aberdeen, N. G. Back
north he had charge of territory,
succeeding which he was sent south
making contracts, and when the build
ing of the company's enterprises in
Sumter county was decided upon
vas appointed as the man who CO. !.
fill the bill, and thel excellent juos-
ment of the Belts Company has been
maintained
The head sawyer. W. E. Merritt was
raised i'll South Carolina and came