Families often worked for lumbering companies for generations. If the father of a family was a long-time lumberman for a company, his wife, sons, daughters, and grandchildren often worked for the company to some extent, either as their first job, or as career employees. The family members were not restricted to working with the timber; they would often become cooks, secretaries, assistants, teachers, store clerks, etc. If a family lived in the lumber camps for long periods of time, lumber camp life was the only life that the children knew, so they often went straight to work for the camp after graduation from high school. There are many examples of employment tradition in the history of the W.M. Ritter Lumber Company.
Noah Tiller (1886-1950) started working for the W.M. Ritter Lumber Company in 1919 after working for the Honaker Lumber Company from 1908 until the company sold in 1917. After one year, Noah was promoted to camp foreman at Frying Pan Camp, a position that he held until his promotion to Woods Superintendent in 1923. He held this position until his retirement in 1949, at the age of 63.
Tiller had 7 sons: Asa, Earl, Atlee, Roy, Bert, Lacy, and Curtis. The 5 oldest sons worked for the Ritter Company after graduation from high school, but most moved to Kingsport, Tennessee to work for Tennessee Eastman or AFG Industries.
Frank Fletcher was born in 1893 in Byrd, Virginia, which is located in Russell County. Fletcher worked as a blacksmith for two lumbering companies, Yellow Poplar and W.M. Ritter, for whom he worked 32 years. Fletcher had 2 sons who both worked for the Ritter Company, as well as 3 daughters, one of which married a Ritter Company employee.
Bill Fletcher also worked for the Ritter Company. It is not noted whether or not he is related to Frank Fletcher, but it is interesting to note that he is the nephew of Noah Tiller. Bill Fletcher worked for Ritter for 28 years as a railroad engineer, taking logs from the woods to the sawmills.
FAMILIES IN LOGGING COMPANY CAMPS
Charles Tiller Collection, CT 65 Noah Tiller, 1928
Charles Tiller Collection, CT 3 Asa Tiller, 1928
The O'Quinn family is another prominent name in the Ritter Lumber Company. Several members of this family worked for the company, doing various jobs. Rice O'Quinn went to work for Ritter when the company was still very young, and most of his nine sons also went to work for the company as well. Very few of them finished high school, and started work in the camps during their early teens, a practice that is illegal today.
One of Rice's sons, Ezra, worked for the Ritter Company as a logger. Ezra's son, Okey O'Quinn, worked for Ritter's coal operation as a miner during the Great Depression, later working for two other coal companies. Okey then moved to Detroit to work for the expanding automobile industry.
George O'Quinn, another son of Rice O'Quinn, worked for Ritter for at least 30 years as a timber cutter. One of George's daughters, Alice O'Quinn Lawson, married an employee of Ritter from West Virginia.
Charles Tiller Collection, CT 40 Ezra O'Quinn
Sometimes, families or parts of families will move from one area to another to work for a prospering company. This is the case with two members of the Triplett family, who moved from Avery County, North Carolina to Dickenson County, Virginia, a distance of approximately 140 miles, to work for W.M. Ritter's company.
Tom Triplett moved from Avery County to Dickenson County in 1919 to begin work for Ritter, for whom he worked a total of 38 years. Tom held several positions for the Ritter Company, including foreman, teamster, blacksmith, timber cutter, and superintendent. Tom had 9 children, all of whom worked for Ritter in different capacities.
Charles Triplett moved from Avery County to Dickenson County in 1922 to begin work for the Ritter Company as a teamster. He worked a total of 11 years for Ritter before moving back to North Carolina to work for a furniture company.
G.O. Edwards Collection APA 676 Tom Triplett