Saw Mills

One of the almost forgotten industries that flourished within the past three quarters of the century is the lumbering. There are a few mills scattered throughout the county but they do not compare in any way with those at the beginning of this century.

At that time one could find several mills operating in every township. To operate successfully, it required men experienced in cutting the trees, trimming and getting them to the mill. Mills were usually located in ravines or valleys. It was easier getting the logs down the hills and there was usually a spring or small stream where water was available for the boiler in the old steam engine. This engine with its six foot high steel wheels and wide rims and the two front wheels about twenty-four inches high would be imbedded in pits to make it stationary and secure. Its large fly wheel ran an endless belt to a smaller wheel at the mill. This small wheel was fitted to a long steel axle. On the opposite end was the large circular saw. The man who operated the truck, on which the logs were rolled and then fastened by large spikes, was called the sawyer. By means of several levers, he controlled the truck or carrier carrying the log into the saw.

The first cut from the log was carried by one or two men away from the saw and then thrown helterskelter into a pile called the 'slab pile'. These men were called 'off bearers'. Generally the log was squared, meaning that four slabs were cut from the log thus making it square. It all depended upon the thickness of the tree trunk or log as to how many cuts could be obtained. It was the sawyer's job to know what orders had to be filled. The loggers and the sawyer could almost tell at a glance about how many board feet could be cut from a log. It is impossible in this small space to describe all the various sizes a sawyer could cut.

The loggers were also skilled in their job. In the early days horses were used to pull the logs to the mill by means of hooks and chains. A 'Kant-hook' and sledge hammer were his tools. The cutters were also skilled. Some were so adept in the use of the ax that he could fell a tree on a stake at thirty to forty feet.

The boards, ties or whatever were cut by the sawyer were piled on a truck and then pushed by hand on an elevated track a hundred feet or more and then stacked on piles to be hauled away later.

The sawmills as we remember them when we were kids were usually a place to spend hours so long as we stayed away from the mill and out of the way of the workers. Usually we played on the sawdust pile, which was in many cases quite high. When we came home, many times our mothers would make us practically strip on the back porch in order to get the sawdust out of our hair, shoes and clothes. If we carried too much in the house we were made to clean up the mess. Incidentally, after the sawmill machinery was removed from the site, these old slab piles provided a haven for foxes, skunks, opossums and weasels as well as rabbits.

When a farmer wanted to build a house or barn, chances were that he would cut a number of trees from a wooded section of his farm, haul the logs to the nearest mill. Between the sawyer and the carpenter a very close estimate of the required number of board feet could be given. After the exact dimensions were given, many times the mill owner would have a supply of lumber in stacks curing for future use. Today, such a supply must be obtained from a lumber company and not the mill.

Almost all railroad stations had yards where the mill owners could haul their products and load it into waiting railroad cars to be shipped to areas of the country. There were many activities about these old stations. There were often six or eight mills shipping their lumber. All this lumber had to be hauled to these shipping points by heavy wagons with teams of two or perhaps four large horses from mills located up to fifteen miles away. Such distances meant only one load per day. The hauler would leave the mill by day-break, deliver his load at the station and return to the mill by late afternoon, load up his wagon for the next day's trip.

The roadways leading to and from the mill to the railroad station every spring and early winter were nothing but deep ruts cut by the heavy wagons in the soft earth. Many times the teamster would fill the deep ruts from the township road to the mill with slab wood and many loads of sawdust and a few stones that could be picked up along the trail. The township road supervisors were always busy repairing the roads. This gave the local farmers, with their teams and wagons, an opportunity to 'work out' their taxes.

Sometimes the men working at these mills would use second rate raw lumber and erect a shanty or two at the mill site, cover the top and sides with tar paper, build several bunks and a table inside along with an old cook stove and live here during the week. Every Friday evening they would walk perhaps four or five miles to their homes. Sometimes they would return on Sunday night to be ready for Monday morning's work. Fuel for the heating and cooking was free for the taking from the slab pile. A kerosene lantern hung on a nail in the rafter provided what light was needed.

Although Bedford County had no extremely large saw mills comparable to those in Somerset County such as the Babcock Lumber Company, established in 1889 near Windber and the McNeal Lumber Company, formed prior to l9OO, it might be interesting to know that both of these large companies cut timber in Bedford County. The Babcock Lumber Company operated in two sections of the eastern slopes of the Alleghenies. It ran a switchback railway to haul the logs from what is now Blue Knob area to the hairpin curve west of Alum Bank and along the Bedford-Somerset line in the upper section of Nigger Hollow to near New Baltimore. Later McNeal bought timber lands in this section. He operated out of McNealtown, located one mile west of the Grand View Hotel. He used part of the old abandoned Babcock right of way. The railroad crossed the Lincoln Highway about one hundred yards west of McNealtown and proceeded to Gahagen and Central City.

A little known sawmill began its operation in the extreme southwestern part of the county in 1912. It was known as the H.D. & W of Cook's Mills. Locally it was called the High, Dry and Windy. A narrow gauge railroad operated between Cook's Mills of Bedford County and Kennells Mills in Somerset County. After the timber cutting was finished, the small railroad continued in operation in the coal and fire clay under the name of Cook's Mills Coal and Clay Company in 1915. It stopped its operation in the 1920's.

The Allegheny mountain presented a great barrier to the early traveler. It was covered by vast stands of timber that remained relatively untouched except for the road builders and the settlers who had to clear fields to cultivate crops. The trees provided lumber to make his log cabin.

Within the past century the virgin forests have changed drastically. We no longer find trees that measure four to five feet in diameter and a hundred and fifty feet tall. It takes centuries to grow trees of these dimensions. Today, many tracts of timber are being cut by power saws, the logs pulled to roadways by steel cable and heavy machinery and mechanically loaded on to large trucks and hauled to a mill located many miles away where modern equipment is used to cut them into building material in all forms and descriptions.

The men who operated the old saw mills, the men who worked in the hills, ridges and mountains have left a legend to their descendants.