Making Trowels and Rocking Chairs in Doddridge County

DODDRIDGE COUNTY – If you go to Doddridge County and ask the question, “What do they make here?” you might find a man who crafts his own patented trowels and another man who builds hundreds of rocking chairs each year.
SCRAPING OUT A MARKET
Pat Daniels invented the Transpotter during the 1970s, when a garden trowel he was using broke.


His invention is like a normal trowel, but the wooden handle is attached horizontally to the blade. He says that makes it like an extension of the human hand.
“It’s so unusual that people just don’t understand the tool,” said Daniels. He says that once people try his Transpotter, they are often pleasantly surprised. He said a friend of his who used to get fatigued after planting between 40 and 50 plants in a day can now plant 100 each day with less fatigue.
Even so, getting people to dig in to the Transpotter hasn’t been easy, a fact that he thinks stems from its unique appearance.
“I still haven’t made any money back yet with this thing, but I’m working at it,” said Daniels. “Maybe someday.”
Daniels patented the Transpotter during the 1990’s. He says people who had acquired the tool had urged him to patent it for two decades, and he finally decided he’d try. He says he’s made about 450 Transpotters, and sold about 300.
A Doddridge County original, the Transpotter is made of West Virginia products – the blade is West Virginia steel, and the handle is made from Mountain State ash trees.
“Invented here, made here… used here so far,” said Daniels. “Hopefully worldwide before long.”
He says the trowel is available at a Southern States in Clarksburg, Town and Country Hardware in Salem, and Appalachian Glass in Weston. Daniels says he attended the National Lawn and Garden Show in Chicago to promote the Transpotter, and decided to lower his product’s price after the trip.
Pat Daniels makes the Transpotter at the farm where he also raises goats and chickens, and grows vegetables like tomatoes, eggplant, parsnips and spinach. He says his farm is largely self-sufficient.
His two-room Transpotter factory runs on a generator outside the house, and when it’s set up for production, Daniels says he can put out 100 trowels in a week.
Daniels says he’s lived in West Virginia for between 30 and 40 years, and when he’s not making Transpotters, he makes his living doing carpentry work in the area.
A ROCKING BUSINESS
While Daniels works to find a niche for his Transpotter, Tom Doak already runs a thriving business out of a shed near his Doddridge County home.
Doak is the Chairman (pun intended) of ATTA-Way Rockers, building rocking chairs for sale at West Virginia’s state parks, on the internet, and as far away as Nashville, Indiana. He says he has a large market there after a distributor found the chairs in the Tamarack collection.
A retired teacher of 31 years at Doddridge County High School, Doak now works part-time in the morning at Notre Dame High School in Clarksburg, and then spends four or five hours in the afternoon working in his shop.
He says the shop is set up specifically to make chairs, allowing him to finish one in five or six hours.
Doak estimates that he’s built at least 3,600 chairs, and says he usually builds more than 200 in a year. Last year he built 219, and in his most productive year, he says he built 268.
The business started in 1986, after Doak’s great aunt asked his father to fix her rocking chair. The chair had been built by another area family, and Doak’s father copied the pattern and made a few of his own.
“When he was not able to work any more, he still had orders for seven or eight,” said Doak. “I started making just those to finish up his orders, and when they got out, we got more orders.”
While many of Doak’s chairs are sold outside of the local area, his business has roots in West Virginia. The oak, maple, cherry, and other hardwoods used in his chairs come from West Virginia. He says another retired person often helps build the rockers, and his niece puts the finish on them.
The name ATTA-Way comes from the first initials of Doak’s family.
Although business is booming now, Doak says he didn’t anticipate this kind of success when he first starting working on chairs.
“This was a good way to come home and go out in the shop, and relax, and take it easy,” said Doak. “Of course, now it’s become more of a business and more involved.”
As Doak made more chairs, he said they became harder to keep in stock. He says that he cannot go to too many trade shows, because he often doesn’t have enough unsold chairs.
Doak says ATTA-Way rockers is 85 or 90 percent wholesale, but periodically sells to individuals.
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