Editing Dendron, Virginia (section)

==History==

Dendron was originally a mill town, built and run by the Surry Lumber Company in to house employees of its sawmill. The village was known as Mussel Fork Village until 1896 when it was renamed "Dendron." The name was derived from [[wikt:δένδρον|δένδρον]], the Greek word for tree. The years after 1896 saw rapid growth and expansion of the sawmill and the town. More people moved to Dendron and additional Company housing was built. By 1906, Dendron had a population of 1513 people, 298 dwellings, two hotels, eighteen Company stores and five churches.
By 1928, Dendron's population had reached nearly 3,000 people. In addition to those establishments listed above, there was also a post office, two schools, a jail, two banks, two doctors, a skating rink, a movie theater, and a number of non-company owned businesses; such as a drug store, barber shops, garages, cleaning establishments, a pool room, a restaurant, bakery and an ice cream parlor.

The company also operated a [[narrow gauge]] railroad known as Sussex, Surry and Southampton Railway that transported logs to its sawmill in Dendron, and lumber to its wharf on the James River. It also offered passenger service to Dendron and other small towns along its route.  One of its steam locomotives built in 1891 was sold to [[Argent Lumber company]] in 1926. It was later bought by [[Midwest Central Railroad]] in 1960. Completely restored it is still in operation as Midwest Central Railroad's flagship locomotive.

Production peaked in 1920, and the company did not replant after it cut trees. By 1925, most of the area's [[old growth]] timber was exhausted. The Surry Lumber Company shut its Dendron sawmills on October 27, 1927. With its major employer gone, the town lost population rapidly, as did nearby [[Sedley, Virginia|Sedley]], [[Vicksville, Virginia|Vicksville]], and [[Central Hill, Virginia|Central Hill]]. The following year, the company began dismantling and selling its equipment and buildings, leaving Dendron without a railroad, water system or electricity.<ref name=huber>Jack Huber, "The Surry Lumber Company", Virginia Forests available (Winter 2000) at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~vaschs/SLCfinal.htm</ref>

In February 1931, a fire swept through what was left of Dendron, destroying twenty-one buildings along Main Street and erasing much of what was left of the once prosperous town. A decade later, the rival Gray Lumber Company of Waverly, which had long replanted its land with pine seedlings, bought 15,000 acres from the nearly defunct Surry Lumber company, and three other companies soon bought most of the remaining acreage in other counties. The company's headquarters in Dendron was razed in 1970, and the former commissary, converted into a store, burned down in 1989.<ref name=huber />