The Shadow
James Steely was a man of wide-ranging abilities and interests.
James E. Steely was 20 years old when he moved from his Pennsylvania hometown to work for the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company in Covington as a chemist. Three years later, in 1909, he took leave to complete his Master of Science degree at Penn State College. The
following year he married 18-year-old Eloise Jones. The couple would have no children.
Intelligent and capable, James Steely advanced rapidly in the mill’s management hierarchy, and was appointed in 1920 to be a superintendent of the new Kraft pulp mill (the “Upper Mill”) just west of Covington. The Steelys moved to a big house and estate nearby that overlooked Dunlap
Creek. “The Oaks” had been built in the early 1900s for Thomas Luke, the paper mill’s first manager. James and Eloise Steely would turn the property into a regional showplace.
The Jackson River Garden Club held its first flower show in June 1926, an event the Covington Virginian called “a very distinct triumph.” Eloise Steely won first place for peonies and second for her irises and poppies. The club’s membership consisted primarily of wives of the county’s
leading citizens, but James Steely was also an active participant. He studied and developed new flower variants, became an expert on bulbs, and gave talks to local groups. His greatest interest may have been in the genus Narcissus (which includes daffodils and jonquils). Steely cultivated
thousands of these popular flowers, and they held a prominent place in his botanical lectures.
The couple racked up dozens of flower show awards over the next 15 years. Eloise served twice as the club’s president, often hosted its meetings, and judged local and area flower competitions.
The Steelys travelled around the country when they could to attend gardening shows and college seminars, including several trips to New York City to attend the yearly National Flower Show.
In July 1931, the Virginian identified The Oaks as “one of the real beauty spots of Covington.”
Surrounded by magnificent oak trees, from which is derives its name, the natural beauties of the place have been carefully preserved by the Steelys, and with the cultivation of their many beautiful flowers and shrubs they have made it indeed a place of enchantment….
The driveway is hedged by boxwood and the incomparable rhododendron, while at the right of the house is a formal rose garden where hybrid teas and hybrid perpetual roses are cultivated in symmetrically laid beds, beautiful climbers in various colors on artistic trellises completing a lovely picture.
In the rear of the rose garden is the space given to annuals in which everything beautiful imaginable grows, in a perfect riot of harmonizing colors.
The article went on to describe the gardens’ “many improved bulbs” of dahlias, iris, and daffodils, and praised the nearby water garden, filled with beautiful lilies of various colors.
In July 1935, the Virginian reported with approval that:
Mr. and Mrs. J.E. Steely have greatly added to the beauty of their home, “The Oaks,” by planting the hillside overlooking the Midland Trail with all sorts of bulbs and shrubs.
The beautifying of this spot not only adds to the attractiveness of the home, but is a picture of well-directed energy that will impress tourists passing up the trail, and leave a lasting pleasant memory of Covington in their minds.
James Steely’s interests also extended to art and to music, which he wrote and performed. In February 1936, he gave a talk to the Covington Women’s Club on the history of Wagner’s musical drama Parsifal, which the Steelys had seen at the Wagner Theatre while visiting Germany. However, of the hundreds of appearances the Steelys made in the Virginian’s pages during the 1920s and 1930s, nearly all highlighted their lasting affection for plants and flowers.
The year was 1941. Winter was nearing an end in Covington. Battles raged across Europe, but Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into World War II were still several months in the future. For the pulp mill’s employees, March 17 was just another working day, until suddenly it wasn’t.
Shortly after 1:00 PM two huge rolls of paper went up in flames. Dozens of mill firefighters joined the Covington Fire Department in battling the blaze, while other employees struggled to move stacks of paper away. The men worked in relays throughout the night in temperatures that
fell below ten degrees. It took more than two days to completely extinguish the massive fire.
Remarkably, there were only two casualties, both from heart attacks caused by the enormous stress and exertion. Superintendent James Steely collapsed during the first afternoon, and department head Walter F. Lunger went down an hour or two later. Neither would survive.
Richard F. Beirne, editor of the Virginian, wrote that Steely and Lunger “gave their lives as loyally as any men who ever died in the line of duty anywhere.” He added, “The people of this section of Virginia fully appreciate the heroic sacrifices these gentlemen made.”
The great banks of shrubs and flowerbeds that once adorned the Steelys’ home are now gone, along with the water garden. The ruined old house was eventually torn down. But every year, in the first days of spring, daffodils fill the empty fields along the creek – members of the genus
Narcissus, which, as James Steely surely knew, symbolizes renewal, rebirth, and hope.
