Fraternity-Testvériség, 2008 (86. évfolyam, 1-3. szám)
2008-07-01 / 3. szám
A HUNGARIAN LOGGING CAMP the company mill dropped the second shift completely and cut back its hours of operation. Even the principal of the local school set up a free lunch program to help those in need and enlisted the ninth graders to help prepare and serve the food. Persons who were employed supplied others with beans, vegetables, and bread and the more prosperous residents provided others with meat dishes. Unfortunately, in 1930, one of the worst droughts along with severe fires occurred along the Western Maryland railroad. The Company attempted to keep some employed in the woods , on the railroad, or in the mills, but in 1934, there was a three-month strike brought on by Depression woes and talk of unionization. Then, the development of new paper making techniques which used fast growing “loblolly” pine as a source for pulpwood reduced the need to harvest spruce from around Cass so people looked elsewhere for income and gradually moved away. When the Depression was over, American industry began to grow again, but many West Virginia families had already moved to industrial cities like Baltimore, Cleveland and Pittsburgh where war-related jobs were growing in volume. Many Cass residents were drafted, and after the Pearl Harbor attack, enlistment increased. The West Virginia Paper and Pulp Company, later the Mower Lumber Company, decided to dispose of all the timberland leases and rights, the logging operations, and the railroad and wood processing infrastructure. They vacated most of their holdings in Cass. At the end of lumbering operations in July, 1960, the merchandise in the company store was sold at reduced rates. Since Cass was always a company town constructed to meet the immediate needs of the logging industry, it never worried about possibly retooling to remain in existence. Since the natural resources at this location were eventually going to be expended, company housing wasn’t ever expected to last into the next century. So in 1976, the State of West Virginia purchased the company store and its contents to be part of the Cass Scenic Railroad State Park where today it is operated by the State Park as a tourist gift shop. Employees tell visitors about the ghost of a “wood hick” called David McDonald who was the first man to die on the railroad tracks at Cass. He had apparently come to Cass, collected his pay, and wasted it. On his way back to the logging camp, he lay down on the tracks for a nap thinking the vibrations from an oncoming train would wake him, but the next train never stopped before running him over. His remains were taken to the Company Store until the coroner arrived. He died on January 30, 1902 and is said to reside today as the “ghost of the company store” who walks the upstairs floors. By 1960, this boom town and its company store had mostly been vacated. The Hungarian logging camp of Whittaker Station #1 had lost its workers to West Virginia’s coal fields or elsewhere. A plaque was erected to honor those who died while working there and to thank contributors for resurrecting buildings and refurbishing machinery on site. The state of West Virginia bought the Cass railroad in 1961 and the town of Cass in 1976 so Cass and Whittaker Station #1 are now parts of West Virginia history. But the town of Cass owes its success of the early 1900’s to its immigrant workforce of Hungarians, Italians and Austrians who built the railroad to bring timber to the mill. Up the mountain, those Hungarians of Whittaker Station, with names like Toth, Szabó, Nagy, Kacso, Katona, and Roczey, once cut trees that were 12-15 feet in diameter. With the popular ski resort of Snowshoe only ten miles away, tourism has replaced logging as the area’s main employer, and forestry has given way to the mining of a high grade of hard coal. Surprisingly, this area is now the largest single producer of Black Angus cattle, Perrier bottles its water in this area of West Virginia, and sawdust is still sold in vast quantities for manufacturing. Because of its low taxes, retirees are relocating here, horse farms are flourishing, and agriculture is a growth industry. Still, it was the Hungarians of Whittaker Station #1 logging camp that helped make America the powerhouse of wood products and pulp paper for nearly half a century. References: Futej, Gerald M. and Robin, Max S. 100 Years and Still Counting, the Town of Cass, West Virginia. Greenhill Station Productions, 2007 32 WINTER 2008
