Tag: Kelly Axe and Tool Company

August 4, 1897: Dixie Songbird Billy Cox Born

Country-and-western musician Billy Cox was born near Charleston on August 4, 1897. He started his career in 1928, singing and playing guitar and harmonica on Charleston’s WOBU radio station, which later became WCHS.

During the 1930s, Cox was recognized as one of West Virginia’s premier singer songwriters.

Among his 150 recordings were future country standards like “Sparkling Brown Eyes” and this song, “Filipino Baby,” which he performed with Cliff Hobbs of Cedar Grove.

Several of Billy Cox’s songs celebrated Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal. But the Great Depression, along with personal problems, cut Cox’s career short.

He soon left the music business and worked various odd jobs, including a stint at Charleston’s Kelly Axe Factory. He was later discovered by musicologists in the 1960s living in poverty. Billy Cox, known as the “Dixie Songbird,” died in 1968 at age 71.

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June 30, 1904: Kelly Axe & Tool Co. Acquires Land to Become World's Largest Axe Factory

On June 30, 1904, the Kelly Axe and Tool Company acquired 53 acres of land along the Kanawha River on the West End of Charleston. It eventually became home to the world’s largest axe factory.

The company was founded in 1874 by William C. Kelly, who established his first factory in Kentucky before relocating to Indiana and then West Virginia. Kelly was attracted to the Kanawha Valley by the availability of abundant natural gas and good access to river and rail transportation.

The Charleston plant opened in January 1905 and later expanded to some 50 buildings. By 1921, Kelly Axe employed about 1,000 men and women, including many Polish and Russian immigrants.

Over the years, the company’s name changed with corporate mergers—first to American Fork and Hoe and then True Temper. Most Charlestonians, though, continued to call it Kelly Axe.

The decline of domestic manufacturing in the late 20th century hit tool making particularly hard. Production was downscaled in the 1960s, and the old Kelly Axe Factory closed for good in 1982, marking the end of nearly 80 years in business.

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