C.T. Edmonds & Sons Stave Factory
Source:
History of Browntown, 1856-1929, Accession #11587, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville. Va.
Title and Description of Photo (From History of Browntown, 1856-1929)
C.T. Edmonds & Sons Factory
“In the spring of 1904 Hon. John J. Miller and C.T. Edmonds entered into a partnership and built a fully equipped slack stave and heading factory. This partnership was terminated in the summer of 1923 by the death of Mr. Miller. The property was then acquired by C. T. Edmonds & Sons, who own and operate it now.”
Information about this photo:
The buildings in this photo no longer exist. It is known that some of the materials were re-used by neighbors in building or repairing barns in the area. The factory was located on the east bank of Gooney Run, just south of the Lafayette Updike house. When the stave factory opened in 1904 it took over and adapted existing buildings of the old Cover Tannery that had previously operated on the same site from 1872 to 1900. The Stave Factory that you see in the photo above continued to operate until the death of its owner Charles Thomas Edmonds in 1933.
The letter heading below shows that the factory produced “Staves, Headings, Barrels, Etc.” It also operated an “automobile and general repair shop” which specialized in servicing Ford vehicles. It would have been in competition with another auto and general repair shop in the center of Browntown that was owned by K.D. Updike.
Letterhead for C.T. Edmonds & Sons
Another Photo of the Edmonds Stave factory (also 1929)
Stave Factories
Stave factories/mills produced the narrow strips of wood that compose the sides of barrels and also tops and bottoms (headings) for such barrels. Barrels were vital for the transportation of goods in the days before easily fabricated boxes and waterproof plastic containers. Stave factories processed either hardwood—used to make “tight,” or waterproof, barrels—or softwood—used to make “slack” barrels, or those that were used for transporting dry goods and foodstuffs. Depending upon the kind of stave being produced, logs were cut into thirty-two- or thirty-six-inch lengths. Stave cutting was dangerous work, and injuries would have been common.