RSS | 
Twitter
| 
Be a fan!
Rusting relic nearly restored
For the Observer-Reporter
newsroom@observer-reporter.com
"I want to cut one log and see if I remember how," Pete Crawford of Mather said, beaming as he eyed the freshly painted gears and pulleys of the big machine in front of him. "I used to run head saw for Tom Headlee."
Rate This Story:
1 the lowest - 5 the highest
Current rating:
"I remember my granddad had a sawmill on his farm," Tom Headlee told the crowd who gathered for the Headlee Sawmill exhibit dedication Saturday. The new pole barn that protects the working parts sports a plaque that thanks everyone who donated time and materials. Above it hangs an original, faded wooden sign from the Headlee Sawmill in Rogersville.
"Dad bought this old mill from the Redd family of Washington County and set up here at the museum in 1980. He operated it till 1986," Headlee said. "Dad died in 1987 and for the next four years (brother) Gene and I kept it running for the Harvest Festival. It hasn't been run in years, but we plan on having it working by October. Yes, we'll be cutting wood again. I think Dad would be proud of what's going on at the museum today."
"Last year we decided to restore the sawmill," museum administrative assistant Donna Eddy said. "My dad worked at Tom Headlee's sawmill, so having a working mill at the museum really means something to our family. My husband Don is the overseer of this project and it amazed me how many people came together to help him."
"I thought of this as a piece of history," Don Eddy said. "I built the tracks at home in December. The process from then to now has been a lot of hard work, time, and sandblasting. I feel like I've touched base with the old timers."
"I was born in 1935, number five in the line of two brothers and two sisters," Headlee said. "Dad taught school, and his salary as principal was $90 a month. When I came along, he decided to make the sawmill his new career to make ends meet. Dad was the oldest of eleven children - he had seven brothers. I'm sure most of those boys were part of his crew."
Headlee's knowledge of the family business is a living history lesson in itself. "They used tractors and automobile engines to run the mill. Once they took a perfectly good Duesenberg and cut it in half with axes just to use the engine. Granddad owned a '29 Model A ton-and-a-half to haul lumber. In those days, he moved the mill from woods to woods using horses to drag logs to the mill. Most of the business was for barns and fencing. They cut mine props and cribbing and ran the mill throughout World War II, cutting lumber for ships and big timbers for mud pads for the merchant marines."
The lumber business in Greene County is the story of the Headlee family and the lumber they produced to build homes for the returning GI's after World War II as well as the schools in Aleppo, New Freeport, Spraggs and East Franklin. Over the years, there were Headlee lumber mills in Waynesburg, Point Marion, Headlee Heights and Sabreton, W.Va.
Tom Headlee graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in forestry. After a stint in Illinois with the U.S. Forestry Service, he returned home and opened a sawmill in Rogersville with his father, Russell, in 1960.
"I was elected to be the register and recorder for the county in 1976 but continued to work driving trucks and purchasing timber. We went through some good times and some not so good, but we always were able to put food on the table."
After 35 years in the business, Headlee knew when to call it quits.
"In 1995 I injured my back and was unable to do hard work, and in this business it is all hard work. But I still miss the sound of power saws and the smell of sawdust."
There is still work to be done and a few missing pieces to be found before the antique mill, made in the late 1800s by Frick Co. of Waynesboro, will be ready, Don Eddy said.
"The big belt is coming and we're looking for donations to buy black beauty sand to get the head piece sandblasted. After that, we could use some help painting. Give me a call."
When this year's Harvest Festival rolls around, a tractor will be used to run the mill and festivalgoers can watch whole trees turn into perfect planks as the big teeth of the blade send showers of sawdust flying and the scent of fresh wood hangs in the air.
To volunteer time or to donate, call 724-998-1851. For more information about summer events at the museum, go online to www.greenecountyhistory.com.
