Woman received a very surprising Christmas gift

On Christmas Eve about 1895, a lady, who had never been to Bristol before, arrived at the local train station. Soon after arriving, she was presented with a Christmas present that was beyond belief.
The story begins with the great timber boom that began shortly before 1900 and continued several years thereafter.
In her early years, the fast-growing town of Bristol’s demand for lumber was filled by saw mills located at various points nearby. A few Bristol mills obtained the saw logs from area forests. It was long known that the Holston and adjoining mountains nearby were covered with fine, virgin timber.
However, this valuable source of building materials had not been really tapped into until the timber boom came. Perhaps the distance and difficulty of logging the rough terrain caused the delay.
But soon, a few enterprising businessmen from out of state began to come in and overcame the obstacles that had delayed the removal of this timber. They had plans to obtain lumber, not only for building purposes here locally but also had plans to ship it (in great quantities) to distant points.
Among those enterprising men was Allison F. Willey. At first, he set up his lumber works in Bluff City where he built a boom in the Holston River to catch the logs that had been cut on the mountains and floated down the river. But a dispute arose with the town fathers of Bluff City. This led to his removing his works to Bristol.
Here, he joined with Constantine Morton and Everett P. Lewis to form the firm of Morton Lewis and Willey Lumber Company of which he served as general manager for several years. This company operated the Holston Valley Railroad for the purpose of bringing logs from the mountains to the processing plant that was located near the end of Georgia Avenue.
The Cortrim Lumber Company later occupied this site until a burnout in recent years. (The Willey Boom section of Bristol was named for Mr. Willey).
Over the next few years, Mr. Willey saved choice lumber from this plant with the intention of putting it into a fine home he would build at a later date. He also chose choice walnut and cherry lumber and shipped that to a furniture factory in Grand Rapids, Mich., to be made into fine furniture for this fine home.
In the autumn of 1953, the late Mrs. Sam Scott, affectionately known to everyone as Aunt Betty, sat by the fireside in her humble home on Second High Street and told me the rest of the story. She said that Mr. Willey finally built his fine late Victorian home at 420 Pennsylvania Ave. This would be the northwest corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Ash Street.
He had it all decorated and completely furnished without the knowledge of his wife. Then, he sent for her. She was scheduled to arrive late in the afternoon of Christmas Eve. He met her at the local depot and brought her, in his carriage, to the new home he had built for her.
This was the first she knew of it, and what a surprise it was! It was a great Christmas gift indeed.
He had also hired Aunt Betty Scott to have supper cooked and on the table awaiting them when they arrived from the depot. Indeed, it was a great surprise and joy to his wife, Hattie Willey. It was the kind of gift that few people would ever receive.
Aunt Betty, with moist eyes, told how Mrs. Willey was so excited she could hardly eat supper.
Then, as quickly as the meal was over, she wandered from room to room, again and again, to view the beautifully decorated walls, the fine hanging oil lamps and the beautiful furniture from Grand Rapids that had been made especially for the house, all made from the choice timber harvested from Holston Mountain.
The Willeys enjoyed their home for a few years, and then other business interests caused them to move on.
After they left the house, several different families lived there. For a few years, it served as the parsonage of the First Baptist Church. It is known that Rev. J. Emmerson Hicks, pastor of this church, lived there during the 1938-40 period.
As the years passed, it became an apartment house and fell on hard times, so much so that it became necessary to demolish it.
I was made very sad when one day I drove out Pennsylvania and saw it had been demolished.
But the lumber had been neatly stacked on the lot, and people came from near and far to admire the quality of the lumber that had been cut on Holston Mountain, processed in the Willey mills and made into such a beautiful home.
Perhaps it is fitting that the site of this Christmas gift house was later turned into a flower garden for the Vince Kinsler home that occupies the lot next door.

BUD PHILLIPS is a local historian and author. He can be reached at (276) 466-6435.