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KANAWHA COUNTY WEST VIRGINIA
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Submitted to the West Virginia Biographies Project by:
Valerie & Tommy Crook
vfcrook@trellis.net
November 26, 1999
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The History of West Virginia, Old and New
Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc.,
Chicago and New York, Volume III,
pg. 327
I. WAYMON CALDWELL is general manager of the Yellow
Pine Lumber Company of Charleston, one of the largest
retail organizations in the lumber trade of the state.
The present business originated in the enterprise of Mr.
J. H. O'Neill, who some twenty-five years ago established
the Georgia Lumber Company at Bluefield, West Virginia.
He was a sash and door manufacturer of Rome, Georgia.
Soon afterward the management of the business at Blue-
field was turned over to Walter Perkins, thus enabling Mr.
O'Neill to concentrate his attention more fully upon his
manufacturing business, in which he succeeded his father.
Then, in 1903, in association with Mr. Perkins, he incor-
porated the Yellow Pine Lumber Company. Mr. O'Neill
was also responsible for the establishment of the Southern
Pine Lumber Company at Clarksburg, and he was financially
interested in the Carolina Pine Lumber Company at Hunt-
ington. Each of these enterprises attained an enviable
success. Mr. O'Neill finally withdrew altogether from the
business at Clarksburg, but continues as president of the
Yellow Pine Company. This company has prospered in
proportion with the growth of the Kanawha Valley in
wealth, population and industry, and operates a retail yard
that can meet practically every demand for standard lum-
ber.
For the past three years the business at Charleston has
been under the personal supervision of Mr. I. W. Caldwell,
who is a veteran employe of the company, and it was his
faculty for getting things done and his broad knowledge of
the lumber business in general that won the recognition re-
sulting in his appointment as general manager. In this
post he has proved his ability to broaden the business and
service of the company.
Mr. Caldwell is a very active and public spirited mem-
ber of the community, is affiliated with the Chamber of
Commerce and the Kiwanis Club, and recently was the prime
mover in co-operating with other local business men and cit-
izens in securing the grounds and financing the organiza-
tion of the Kanawha Country Club. He is a Mason, an
Elk and a member of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Cald-
well married Clara J. Copham, of Wheeling.
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