Marshall McClung
Local resident Martha James Orr recently requested that a column about the Milltown area of Graham County be written.
The small community of Milltown is located along Snowbird Road (N.C. 143 West), from Long Creek Road to Claude Rogers Road. This community began due to the starting of logging and lumbering operations, a railroad and a large sawmill.
A railroad from Topton to Robbinsville – which was completed by Bemis Lumber Company – reached town on July 4, 1925. The railroad extended past Robbinsville to the present-day location of the recycling center.
At this same location, Bemis began construction of a sawmill in 1926.
Bemis employed a large number of workers who needed somewhere to live, so several homes along the above-mentioned route were constructed by Bemis and rented to their employees. An office and a large store referred to as “The Commissary” (later named Snowbird Supply) were also built.
At one time, Milltown had its own small barber shop which was operated by Dennis Massey. Over time, over 50 families with local names would live in these homes.
One long-time Bemis employee, Doyle Brock, still lives there. Perry Waldroup has also called Milltown home for 68 years.
For many years, Bemis was the only industry in Graham County and the largest employer. This became even more important to Graham County’s economy during the Depression when jobs were almost nonexistent. Bemis operated their mill here from 1927-90 and sawed over 500 million board feet of hardwood lumber.
The timber lands owned by Bemis were sold in 1971 and the mill was sold by auction in 1990. The homes Bemis rented to employees were sold to individual families.
As a teenager, I spent a lot of time in Milltown having become friends with the John and Helen Sluder family. John was a Bemis employee and worked at the lumber mill.
The Sluders had three teenagers, two boys and a girl – and I was there so much, I was counted as a fourth. When I remember some of our antics, I have concluded that we must have been mentally deficient at the time.
The mill and railroad are gone, we are long past being teenagers, (with some of us gone on), but the Milltown community is still here.
Marshall McClung is the historical columnist for The Graham Star. He can be reached via email, mcclungs@email.com.