Charlottesville Lumber Co.
Probably the largest manufacturing
industry in Northern Virginia and one
which has greatly added to the prosperity
of this city is located south of
the Chesapeake & Ohio depot on both
sides of the Monticello road. The
Charlottesville Lumber Company,
Inc., employs about ninety men in
Charlottesville. Its manufacturing
plant covers one entire city block, and
its lumber yards about four acres of
land. While the largest portion of the
manufactured material is shipped
away from Charlottesville, they furnish
almost all of the building material
that is used locally, and do a large
proportion of the actual construction.
This business was established about
ten years ago, although the present
company acquired control more recently.
The officers of the company
[ILLUSTRATION]
Office and Planing Mill of Charlottesville Lumber Company.
are Chas. Edgar, President; Judge J.
M. White, Vice President; J. M. Robinson,
Secretary; A. W. Griffin, Treasurer
and General Manager, and
Horace Williston, Purchasing Agent.
The factory has 20,000 square feet floor
surface and is equipped with the most
modern machinery for the manufacture
of sash, doors, blinds, columns,
flooring, ceiling, brackets, mouldings,
stairs, etc. In the rear of the factory
are two large dry kilns with a capacity
of 10,000 feet of lumber per day. On
the sides of the factory yard are sheds
teeming with all grades of flooring,
ceiling, weatherboarding and finishing
lumber. Over the office building
is a large up-to-date drafting room
where architectural draftsmen are
busy designing all sorts of structures
from the modest dwelling to the most
expensive factories, stores, office
buildings, etc. In the warehouse,
which is also on the factory lot, there
are stored away four car-loads of glass
of all sizes and qualities, hundreds of
doors, blinds and glazed sash. On the
east side of the Monticello road is
located the lumber yard in which is
stored over 1,000,000 feet of framing
lumber. Mr. Chas. Edgar, the president
of the company, is a native of
New Jersey and one of the largest lumber
operators in this country, his interests
extending from the far Northwest
to the Gulf States. He purchased
the famous "Birdwood" estate
(one of the finest mansion plantations
in the South) three years ago, and
since that time has made his home
here, where he has identified himself
in several business enterprises, and is
well known to the people of Charlottesville
as a public spirited gentleman.
He was recently elected vice-president
of the People's National Bank. Judge
J. M. White is a native of Nelson
County, Va., is Judge of the Eighth
Judicial District, President of the
People's National Bank and interested
in many of the successful local enterprises.
Mr. J. M. Robertson is a native
of Danville, Va., Cashier of the
People's National Bank, and an officer
of the Telephone Company and several
other local enterprises. Mr. A. W.
Griffin is a native of Massachusetts,
and was for several years connected
with the Supervising Architect's Office
of the Treasury Department at Washington.
Mr. Horace Williston is a
native of Wisconsin, and has been engaged
for thirty years in the lumber
business in Chicago and Northwest.
He has made his home at General
Rosser's for several years past and is
well known in Charlottesville. This
company manufactured the interior
trim for the Federal building located
in Charlottesville, and state with pardonable
pride that the Government
officers have expressed the opinion
that the interior finish of this building
is of the finest material and workmanship
they had ever seen in any Federal
building in the country. Among the
employee's of this company who are
well known to the people of Charlottesville
are Mr. W. R. Barksdale,
superintendent of the factory. Mr.
Barksdale has held this position for
the past ten years with the same
establishment under its former management,
and his popularity with the
building trade is well known. He
needs no further introduction to the
people of this community. Mr.
Joseph Dettor, is factory foreman; Mr.
Dettor has only recently been promoted
to the position which he now
occupies as active foreman of the factory
as Mr. Barksdale's assistant, and
bids fair to give the customers of this
concern good service and well made
work. He had entire charge of getting
out the interior wood-work for
the Federal building in this city,
and his ability along this line shows
for itself. Both Mr. W. W. Keenan,
superintendent of construction who
has supervision of contract work, and,
William Jefferies, foreman of the
yards, are also well and favorably
known to the citizens of Charlottesville
and vicinity.
Next to knowing when to seize an
opportunity the most important thing
in life is to know when to forego an advantage.
