Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (20) View all

George Brown and Queve Woody watching Noland Creek forest fire

  • wcu_picturing-5483.jpg
  • This 1941 image of George Allen Brown (1897-1966), left, and Robert Queve Woody, Sr. (1893-1963) watching a forest fire on Noland Creek is part of the Stearns-Grueninger collection. Brown was the founder and president of Brown Wood Products which he began in 1926 in Illinois, and is now operating as Brown Wood, Inc. Woody was Carolina Wood Turning Company plant superintendent for several years. Irving Kip Stearns (1895-1942) was president of Carolina Wood Turning Company from 1928 until his death in 1942. Stearns’ grandfather, Jeremiah Shank, started the company in 1903 as Bryson City Pump Works and it grew to be a thriving industry for the community. In 1911, Stearns was in the first graduating class of Bryson City High School. He had one son, Joseph Pease Stearns (1917-1948). In 1935, I. K. married Betty Grueninger (1896-1971).