University of North Carolina at Asheville
D.H. Ramsey Library
Special Collections/University Archives

Photograph Register 
for
 Austin-Brooks Collection 
(1914-1924)
 P78.4.1


"'Beerstand' Curve going into Bone Valley, Locomotive and log cars" (ab606), Austin-Brooks Collection,
D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, UNC Asheville 28804 
Title Austin-Brooks Collection (1914-1924)
Identifier http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/photo/austin_brooks/default.html
Creator Frank J. Austin, Jr.
Subject Keyword :
Austin, Frank J., Jr. ; Ritter Lumber Company ; Swain County ; Sunburst Lumber Company ; Asheville Telephone Exchange ; Asheville, NC 
Subject LCSH :
Austin, Frank J., Jr. 
Proctor (N.C.)  -- Pictorial works
Canton (N.C.) -- Pictorial works
Proctor (N.C.) -- History -- Pictorial works
Proctor (N.C.) Photography
Canton (N.C.) -- History -- Pictorial works
Canton (N.C.) Photography
Lumber Trade -- North Carolina -- Pictorial works
Date 2001-05-08
Publisher D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Contributor Southern Highlands Research Center
Type Collection ; Image (photographs)
Format 1 document box
Source P78.4.1
Language English
Relation none
Coverage 1914-1925 ; Proctor, NC ; Canton, NC ; Asheville, NC
Rights Any display, publication, or public use must credit the D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville.
Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law.
Donor Donor Number 45
Description The collection of 49 photographs taken by various photographers span the dates 1914 to the mid 1920's. The photographs consist mainly of logging operations of the Ritter Lumber Company in several of the logging towns and camps maintained by the company in western North Carolina. Members of the Brooks family are central to many of the photographs. The greater number of the photographs of logging operations and locomotives and equipment are taken in the Proctor camp, located on Hazel Creek in Swain County and today incorporated into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Other photographs show operations of the Sunburst Lumber Company of Canton, N. C., the Asheville Telephone exchange, and a locomotive in the Asheville yards, 1918. The collection documents early logging practices and and the activities of the logging camp worker.
Acquisition 1978-08-24
Citation Austin-Brooks Collection (1914-1924), D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804
Processed by Special Collections staff, 1978 and 2001

    

P78.4.1 ITEM LIST  
Folder Photograph Number Description Thumbnail
  abp600

Asheville Telephone Exchange

abp600.jpg (52549 bytes)
  abp601 Locomotive at head of  "Hole in the Wall," or Bard Falls on the North Harper Creek in Pisgah National Forest in Avery County, NC. The train seen here, according to Pete Prince, is a Shay locomotive 949, built on 9 November 1904 for the W.M. Ritter Lumber Co. at Mortimer, N.C. The photograph was taken by Herbert W. Pelton [see E.M. Ball Photographic Collection] who photographed for the W.M Ritter Lumber Co. in and around the Proctor and Hazel Creek, N.C. and is a well-known western North Carolina photographer. This information was supplied by  Pete Prince, author of Faces of the Smokies, [Smokybooks@aol.com] who, with others,  has researched the image.  Others who have assisted in identifying the location of the photograph are: Kevin Adams, author of Waterfalls of North Carolina; Dr. Tom Dunigan, associate professor of Computer Science (Tennessee Land Forms), Univ. of Tennessee ; Tom Fetters, railroad author ; Thomas Lawson, Jr. railroad author ; Michael R. O'Neal, railroad author ; Ed Bond, railroad author ; Jerry Ledford, railroad historian.

Mr. Prince also notes that this photograph has been "identified in publications as Bald River Falls at Tellico Plains, TN at the operation of Babcock Lumber Co." and also as the "Hazel Creek Cascades," neither of which is correct.

abp601.jpg (56140 bytes)
  [abp602] Locomotive and log cars [missing 6/93] no image available
  [abp603]

Train wreck [missing 6/93]

no image available
  abp603A Hazel Creek wreck, 1916

  abp604 Log loader

  abp605 Clean up of train wreck

  abp606

Locomotive and log cars

  abp607 Locomotive and log cars 

abp607.jpg (60846 bytes)
  abp608 Proctor lumber yard  
  abp609  Company baseball team

  abp610 Ritter mill at Proctor

  abp611

Company Labor Day picnic, 1914

abp611.jpg (69572 bytes)
  abp612 Proctor school and students

  abp613 Picnic at Proctor school, 1914

  abp614 Ritter Company store, Proctor

  abp615 Hot Springs, NC school group

  abp616

Locomotive at water tank, Swannanoa

  abp617 Locomotive in Pink Beds

  abp618 Ritter Company picnic, 1914

  abp619 Ritter picnic, 1914

  abp620 Engine and flat car, 1914

  abp621

Timber Cutters

  abp622  Men and mules

  abp623 Bear hunters, 1924. Jess Brooks and Hunter Birchfield are shown in this photo in front of a mountain cabin as they set out on a bear hunting expedition. 

  abp624 W.M. Ritter Lumber Co., Commissary building

  abp625 Lunch wagon and ox

  abp626

Locomotive, Asheville, N.C.

  abp627 Log loader, Kitchen Lumber Company, N.C. [Kitchen Lumber Company operated a standard gauge logging railroad from Calderwood, Tennessee where the Southern Railroad connection could be made, to Bear Creek and Deep Creek which are located in the Slickrock Creek (N.C.) drainage basin. The railroad was built sometime around 1916 and existed until 1929 when the Calderwood Dam overwhelmed the rail line.

  abp628 W.M. Ritter Lumber Company, Commissary, 1926

High_resolution image

  abp629 Railroad trestle, before Lake Fontana was impounded

  abp630 Hunters, 1924

  abp631

Enka plant under construction

  abp632 Group photograph

  abp633 Charlie Brooks. Taken in 1928, this photograph shows Mr. Brooks and his youngest son, Harry.

  abp634 Charles Brooks. This photograph of Mr. Brooks was taken in Washington, D.C., in 1918. The man shown on the right is his first cousin, Arthur Sailor.

  abp635 Charles and Josephine Brooks. Mr. Brooks is shown with Josie, a Hazel Creek girl. He reports that he jilted her in 1915 because she was smoking a cigarette. He says she played the fiddle and her father was federal agent. See John Parris, "Our Highlanders."

  abp636

Mother and brother of Charles Brooks (Mother's name is Ziltha Brooks). This photograph, taken in 1903, shows Ziltha Brooks with another son. 

  abp637 Charles Brooks. This photograph was taken in 1918 before Mr. Brooks went to France with the 16th Company, Twentieth Engineers. He reports that his dog tag number was 412,221 and he had seven dollars when he crossed the ocean. He says that he sawed lumber after his return from France.

  abp638 Locomotive owned by W.M. Ritter Lumber Company

  abp639 Group near locomotive works and tracks

  ababp639a W.M. Ritter Lumber Company lumber yard, Proctor, c. 1916 (copy of photograph taken by H.T. Loudy, Proctor, NC)

  ababp639b

W.M. Ritter Lumber Co. boiler room and float pond, Hazel Creek, 1916.

  ababp639c Skinning a frozen bear

  abp639D John Calhoun and Claud Halder

  abp639E Group on porch of Josh Calhoun place, Hazel Creek, c. 1890's.
front row: right to left: Joshua Calhoun, Baptist minister, his wife Susan Crisp Calhoun, Jane Martin, Modie (mother),. Pink Martin.
rear: Bennett Crisp, Visitor on right.

  abp639F W.M. Ritter Lumber Co. log loader in operation on railroad of #26 Ritter Lumber Co., Hazel Creek, c. 1916-1917.

  abp640  Rolled panorama, printed offset, Camp Wadsworth, Spartanburg, SC no image available
  abp641 W.M. Ritter Lumber Company, rolled panorama of logging operations. [separate, in document box]. no image available

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