 | A history of Caroline county, Virginia |  |
EXCELSIOR MANUFACTURING
If we exclude farming the manufacture of excelsior easily
becomes the outstanding industry of Caroline. The introduction
and establishment of this industry in the county by George P.
Lyon, of Woodford, in 1896, was indeed the first introduction of
this business to the entire South.
Mr. Lyon, in 1896, was residing at Woodford, and operating a
small general merchandise store, from which he was deriving a
comfortable living; but seeing no probability of accumulating
anything for the proverbial rainy day, he began to take an inventory
of the resources around him with a view to developing
other business and adding to his slender income. In this he
differed from the vast majority of men who, when incomes are
unsatisfactory, seek the golden fleece in another country. It is
a trite observation that the best land, best pastures, greatest
opportunities are all over in another country—far, far away.
There is an old Persian tradition to the effect that one Ali Hafed
sold his farm by the River Indus and went away to search for
wealth and died in poverty in a distant land, while his successor
discovered diamonds on the farm Ali Hafed had left behind and
so became as rich as Croesus. The greatest gold mine in California
was found on a farm which had been sold to enable the former
owner to go to Southern California to search for gold. The greatest
oil field in Pennsylvania was discovered on a farm which had been
sold for less than one thousand dollars in order that the former
owner might go farther north and engage in the oil business
with a kinsman. The greatest coal mines in West Virginia were
sold "for a song" to enable the man who had owned the "good-for-nothing
hills" for years to go to the "Golden West" and make
his fortune.
The founder and developer of what has proven to be the
greatest manufacturing industry in the county might have sought
his fortune elsewhere and failed, as many men have done before,
but, taking inventory of the resources around him, he decided
that the excelsior business, of which he had learned something
from friends at the North, could be established to advantage in
Caroline, where material was plentiful and labor prices reasonable.
Accordingly, Mr. Lyon set about establishing his first excelsior
mill with no experience and little capital; but the information he
enterprise was successful from the beginning. Through a Baltimore
friend advantageous marketing arrangements were made
and soon the business was making splendid returns, considering
the capital invested. The returns from the first mill were so
pleasing that other mills followed in rapid succession and the
output, which at first was one car load per week of the manufactured
product, soon increased to thirty car loads per week on
daylight run alone.
When the excelsior industry was first established in Caroline,
it was thought, by all men engaged in the business, that the raw
material consisted of poplar wood only, but Mr. Lyon, seeing
the need of a cheaper grade of excelsior for rough packing, began
to manufacture excelsior from pine wood, and was soon successful
in creating a market for this product. As time passed on the
pine product became the leading excelsior on the market and is
now in demand not only for packing, but for all purposes for
which any other type of excelsior may be used.
Thus the excelsior industry has created a demand for the
small pine timber of the county, which prior to the establishment
of the industry, was used for fuel only and was of little value,
stumpage being bought freely at that time for ten cents per cord.
Since that time, especially during the World War, young pine
timber has sold for as much as five dollars per cord on the stump,
and the increased value of the pine timber, added to the profitable
employment given many men in the manufacture of the same,
has added much wealth and prosperity to the county.
There are now more than a score of excelsior mills in Virginia,
the larger number of these being in Caroline county along the
R., F. and P. Railroad.
Mr. Lyon served as Supervisor in Port Royal District for
many years and in 1923 was elected to represent Caroline in
the House of Delegates.
| A history of Caroline county, Virginia | |