April is here, which is my favorite month. Again, this year is flying by. As of April 1st, only 268 shopping days till Christmas. Don’t say I didn’t warn you! I have several updates, and the first is a sad one. For those of you who followed my May and November 2025 articles remember the pilot that lost his life in a crash in Fulks Run in September 1950. The pilot’s daughter and husband came to Fulks Run on September 10th, 2025, to visit the crash site. I sadly say that her husband Neal Harrison passed away on January 2, 2026. I am so glad he was able to be here with her during that memorial experience, and that I had the opportunity to meet him.
Next, I am so surprised with the feedback from my readers about the two articles on butchering day. It seems it brought back memories from a lot of people. One lady told me those two issues of the Chimney Rock Chronicle are on their way to California to be read by her daughter. I thank everyone so much for their comments.
Now for our March jingle. Good to the…..the last drop, Maxwell House Coffee. That was an easy one. This slogan was credited to Teddy Rooselvelt that after tasting the coffee at the Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville Tenn in 1907. The coffee became so popular that they bought out the company and named the coffee after their hotel. Strange how some things come about. April jingle, “tell them Charlie ……. finish it and good luck.
Now for this month’s story. This story comes to you by request from a sweet lady. About a thriving manufacturing business that came into Broadway in 1960. Do you know what it was? If you can guess you may have worked there. It was H.D. Lee. It actually started in Timberville in the building across from the garage at Mason Motors. There they made the Lee Brand and also had a training area in the building. The ladies were in training for two weeks. But what was interesting to me was that for these two weeks of training they were paid nothing. Yes, no compensation for their two weeks of work. Not sure that would work now, but work was hard to come by in the area. The founder Harry David Lee was born in 1849 and after several business ventures started the clothing business in 1889. Even after fires and misfortunes, his business prospers, and his company started making the one-piece union-all which was used in World War I by the United States Army. They became known as the fatigue that you couldn’t wear out, which makes the Lee Company the first national advertiser in the apparel industry. Lee passed in 1928 but his nephew by marriage took over. Moving forward he started building many more factories with five in Alabama, several in Georgia, Mississippi, and even in Canada and Belgium. Lee was one of the first with clothes with a zipper, and in the 1960s with denim, good old blue jeans. By 1965 the youth of America spent 3.5 billion dollars on clothes. In the 60’s plants were opened in Texas, Missouri, Kanas Louisiana, and yes VIRGINIA.
1961 was when the new building, as most of us knew, was built. and a great location it was because of its close proximity to Broadway High School. I remember programs like DECA where you would go to school half a day and work the rest of the day. There would be a large number of young people leaving Broadway High to walk over to the Lee Plant to go to work. At one time the plant had 630 employees that worked three shifts Monday through Friday, 24 hours a day. People as far as Rio WV, Luray, Woodstock, and Bridgewater worked there. I looked at my BHS 1975 High School yearbook, and Lee Company had a two-page ad that consisted of four photos that were of Broadway High graduates over the years. In those photos there were 80 individuals that were working at Lee in 1975.
I remember in 1973 the gas rationing system by car license numbers on odd, even ending plate numbers. There were two vans that carried 10-12 people each that came into Macs Superette that worked at Lee Co. These vans came from the Baker, WV area, and we allowed those two vans to fill up each day regardless of their license numbers. The ladies would come into the store, and on Fridays we would cash their checks. I remember them having a blue tint on their hands, hair, and clothes from the blue denim.
Some people’s pay scale was based on something called standard. It was like a quota system. If you didn’t make standard, you would most likely be called into the office. If you made over standard, they would switch you to another operation to keep your wages down. Another interesting bit of information I found in my research was in 1989 the company spent 2 million dollars for items used in treating fabric. What were these items? ROCKS! Yes, for stone washed jeans and the company spent 2 million dollars on rocks. These rocks came from the United States, Turkey, Greece and Mexico.
Lastly, I want to thank Wayne Fulk for helping me with this article. He started with Lee from day one till they closed their doors. In 1960 he started out at 80 cents an hour, and according to the consumer price index that would be about $8.79 in today’s money. I believe it would be hard to find people to work today for that. In his 27 years he started in the pressing department, went into cutting and later building maintenance When Lee closed and shipped everything, (even the equipment) to Mexico and other countries a Company called Hartz came in, and he continued to work for them. He worked nearly 40 years in the same building.
Until this article, I hadn’t realized what an impact this international company had on our community. Also, all the different types of clothing materials to denim, nylon knit, and even Dupont 100% Dacron Polyester, and they made work pants, leisure, ladies, and children’s clothing.
What a loss it was. I guess the old adage “all good things must come to an end” is so true.
Now for an important announcement on Saturday April 25 at 1:00 PM at the Bethel Church of The Brethren in Mayland there will be an Employee Reunion of the H D Lee and Hartz Co employees. This is a covered dish meal. Any questions you may call Bonnie at 540-810-5850. Please help spread the word. I do encourage you to go, just think the employees of the 1960’s are now in their 80’s, and we all know too well that no one will be here forever, this may be the last time you have the opportunity to see an old friend.
Believe it or not
Until Next Time
Ronnie
