Edwin Fisher Conger Papers, 1900-1979

Access and use

Location of collection:
Virginia Historical Society
Virginia Historical Society
P.O. Box 7311
428 N Arthur Ashe Blvd
Richmond, VA 23221-0311
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Laura Stoner
Phone: (804) 342-9662
Phone: (804) 342-9677
Fax: (804) 355-2399

Summary

Extent:
3 linear feet (165 Folders)
Creator:
Conger, Edwin Fisher
Abstract:
The Edwin Fisher Conger papers focus primarily on several of Conger's business operations, specifically the production of treated telephone and electrical poles. Two of Conger's chief operations, Norfolk Creosoting Company and the Piedmont Wood Preserving Company (later simply the Piedmont Company) figure most heavily in the collection, along with information regarding Conger's first endeavor in this field, E.F. Conger Creosoting Company, his extensive timber holdings near Aiken, South Carolina, and his financial, social, and philanthropic dealings as a wealthy businessman living in Virginia.
Language:
English

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains materials regarding the education and career in forestry and treated pole production of Edwin F. Conger, including an autobiography, research materials, and a photograph album relating to pole harvesting and preservation treatment (including images of operations at the Virginia Creosoting Company plant in Culpeper, Va., Norfolk Creosoting Company at Norfolk, Va., E.F. Conger Creosoting Company at Waynesboro, Va., and the Piedmont Company at Augusta, Ga., as well as pictures of Conger's teacher and lifelong mentor, Dr. Carl Alwin Schenck).

Also, includes materials (primarily photographs of operations and pole-production plants) of E. F. Conger Creosoting Company (later simply the E. F. Conger Company), headquartered in Staunton, Va., but with chief operations at Waynesboro, Va. Files include images of Edwin F. Conger at the company headquarters in Staunton.

Also, includes records of the Norfolk Creosoting Company, with its plant and shipping facility at Norfolk, Va., including images of the plant and operations at Norfolk, materials concerning the acquisition of the Hitchcock Woods property at Aiken, S.C., title abstract to "Breezy Hill," residence of E. F. Conger and family and company headquarters in Staunton, Va., and materials concerning sale and dissolution of the company.

Also, includes records of the Piedmont Company, formed by E.F. Conger through his purchase of the Piedmont Wood Preserving Company of Augusta, Ga. The company was headquartered in Staunton but most of its operations were in Georgia and North Carolina, and its largest customer was Southeastern New England Telephone Company. Materials include a minute book of meetings of the Board of Directors (largely a family owned and operated business), records of the purchase and dissolution of Piedmont Wood Preserving Company of Augusta, Ga., photographs of plants, operations and workers (some African American), a scrapbook documenting pole production, treatment and shipping, records concerning the sale of the company assets to a newly re-constituted Piedmont Wood Preserving Company headquartered in Spartanburg, S.C., and records relating to the later operations of the Piedmont Company as an investments holding firm.

Also, include personal and family papers of Edwin F. Conger relating to his daughters, Dorothea (Conger) Eager Grand Sverker and Vivion Randolph (Conger) LeBow, his surviving grandchildren, Howard Lloyd Eager and Edwin F. Eager, for whom he served for a time as guardian; his interests in reforestation; and his philanthropic support of local Staunton historic sites and social organizations. Among these materials are also numerous photographs of family members, vacations, and other travel; materials concerning Conger's purchase and operation of a resort property at Horse Point Estates in Middlesex County, Va.; and a special file on the efforts of Mrs. James A. Higgs to secure the release of Lilly Redmond from Western State Hospital in Staunton in order to have her reside in an early prototype "halfway house" for patients recovering from bouts of mental illness.

Lastly, the collection includes some financial records of Conger's wife, Dorothea Lloyd (Tatum) Conger, as well as genealogical materials she collected primarily on the Randolph and Tatum families; and some late financial records of the Congers' daughter, Vivion (Conger) LeBow.

Biographical / historical:

New Jersey native Edwin Fisher Conger became intrigued with forestry as a child and learned much from his lumberman father, especially in regard to the growth, harvesting and uses of chestnut poles and timber. Beginning in 1909, he attended the Biltmore Forest School, on the famous Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, where he came under the life-long influence of German forester Dr. Charles Alwin Schenck, the chief instructor there. Graduating in 1910, Conger secured a position with the Western Electric Company, where he put in long hours as a chestnut pole inspector. During this period he also became acquainted with the processes of pole and timber preservation through the application of a mixture of chemicals known as creosote.

Around 1915 he went to work for Lowesville Lumber Company in Lynchburg, and eventually took over the firm and recreated it as E. F. Conger Creosoting Company, whose main client initially proved to be elements of the Bell Telephone System. Conger set up treatment plants in Shipman and Natural Bridge, Virginia, and eventually in Waynesboro, which ultimately led to his purchase of the Virginia Creosoting Company in Culpeper. A chestnut blight in the 1920s led to the closing of two of the treating plants in Virginia, but with continued demand from the telephone and power companies operating on the east coast of the United States, Conger purchased the Piedmont Wood Preserving Company, which operated a pressure-treating plant in Augusta, Georgia, in 1930, followed by the purchase of the Norfolk Creosoting Company in 1936, giving Conger a facility on deep water with the potential for coastwise and export trade. The latter he sold in the 1940s and used the proceeds to purchase Hitchcock Woods and the Cedar Creek Farm near Aiken, South Carolina. These 14,000 acres provided Conger with ample resources for his products, but he harvested wisely and committed to reforestation well before that was a general environmental practice.

He also developed contracts with the U.S. government to harvest chestnut poles from national forests in the eastern part of the country. Gradually, Conger got out of the creosoting business, having already converted Piedmont Wood Preserving simply to the Piedmont Company, divesting himself of the plant in Augusta and the company's extensive series of contracts in 1951, and converting the operation largely into an investments holding firm. He likewise sold off the E. F. Conger Company in the early 1950s to a newly constituted Piedmont Wood Preserving Company headquartered in Spartanburg, S.C., including distribution yards in Connecticut, Georgia, and Virginia; became a forestry consultant living in Staunton, Virginia; and developed a forestry center on his lands in South Carolina, partly in tribute to the work of his mentor, Dr. Charles Schenck. In later life, he served as a bank president in Charlottesville and was a generous philanthropist, supporting a number of organizations in Piedmont Virginia before his death in 1974.

Acquisition information:
Gift of the estate of Vivion Conger LeBow, Arlington, Va., in 2007. Accessioned September 30, 2013.
Arrangement:

Divided into series as follows: Series 1. Edwin F. Conger, Education and Professional Life; Series 2. E.F. Conger Company; Series 3. Norfolk Creosoting Company; Series 4. Piedmont Company; Series 5. Edwin F. Conger personal files; and Series 6. Conger Family Personal Files

Physical description:
.

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Creosote.