WHEELING – Following a 37-year career with the Wheeling-LaBelle Nail Co., Jerry Hickman is now looking for a new career because the 158-year old plant is closed. “My father worked there for 40 years, and I worked there for 37. It’s sad to see it go,” said Hickman, a Bethlehem resident, on Friday. “Now, here I am at 58 years old trying to start over.” The plant—which is located near the intersection of Interstate 470 and W.Va. 2 in South Wheeling—opened in what was then Wheeling, Va., in 1852. After West Virginia officially separated from Virginia in 1863, LaBelle continued to play a role in moving industry forward throughout the United States. In recent years, however, LaBelle fell on hard times, Hickman said, noting only 10 employees still worked at the plant when it closed Sept. 30. This number falls far short of the 67 employees he said worked there when he started at the factory in 1973. “There was just so much foreign competition,” Hickman said. “Now, there were plants in China and...
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