A Peek into Summers County’s Past: Waddell & Bugg Trucking Company Calendar

HINTON W.Va. (Hinton News) - I will occasionally start working in pieces from my collection that I haven't been able to find out much about over the years. Calendar advertisements have always been a good means of getting your name out there since the 1800s. It became increasingly popular after the turn of the century. Advertisement calendar's main draw was due to the fact that the business's name, address and eventually phone number were right there before a potential customer's eyes.

This particular calendar is from the 1951 Waddell & Bugg Trucking Company in Hinton. This advertisement dealt with the coal and lumber side of the business. I have learned very little about this company. But this piece is one of the first pieces that instilled such a passion in me for local historic items.

I purchased this at one of Riverbend Auctions in Alderson, West Virginia on the Monroe side when I was around 12 years old. The company used the Woodson-Mohler Grocery Co. building as their auction house for years and years. Growing up I would be at one of Randy's auctions at least once a month there. I remember purchasing this piece, no one wanted it because it was torn, folded and had creases in it; but I could see it for its local history value.

A little funny side tale that tells you just how much I love history and antiques. When I was in a coma in 2017, Mr. Burdette had an auction in Pence Springs. My mother was staying by my bedside at the time in Charleston. She saw a ring that was going to be sold at the auction that was just like one of her mother's that she had lost.

So she messaged Randy and asked him to bid on it for her and he said he would knowing the extenuating circumstances. Long story short he did not just bid on it for her but the Foxfire Realty and the Blake Auction Teams purchased the ring for Mom and sent it to her. The funny part of this story is when Randy made a Facebook post about the ring he said Mom and I have been to almost as many auctions as he has. He wasn't too far off with that statement.

I digress and will get back to the calendar. As I have said I haven’t found much about this company. Except when writing this piece I uncovered an advertisement from March 21, 1945, from The Hinton Daily News for a new transport company opened by Earl Waddell that stated having new trucks and equipment. It further says short and long-distance hauling. And then in all caps says “FOR ANY KIND OF COAL.”

Then directly under that was an ad for “For High Quality Coal Call Howard Bugg, Jr.” That further says “Run-of-mine, stove and stoker coal PHONE 996.” It can be assumed that Earl Waddell and Howard Bugg joined forces and went into business together instead of being each other's competitors at the time.

Since Waddells’ ad said hauling and Bugg's were solely coal they must have focused on each other's strong business traits. The phone number for Waddell was “578” on his original ad. It is also one of the numbers on the calendar. Maybe they kept his office as one of the locations they worked out of. Since there was no address we know nothing other than it was in Hinton."

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