

Action sustained tremendous growth through gains in market share and product diversification over the next 20 years, becoming a major force in the upholstered furniture industry. In 1972, Lane bought a small reclining chair company in Tupelo, Mississippi, named Action Industries, which had been founded in 1970 by Bo Bland and Mickey Holliman. From cedar chests, Lane expanded to occasional tables in 1951, case goods in 1956, and accent pieces in 1965. Since the Lanes did not know how successful their new venture was going to be, they chose not to put their name on it, instead incorporating the little company as the Standard Red Cedar Chest Company, with John Lane as president and Ed Lane as vice president and general manager. His son Ed Lane, 21 at the time and with little manufacturing experience, was encouraged by his father to try his hand at starting a chest factory in the newly acquired plant.

In March 1912, John Lane had purchased a bankrupt box plant in Altavista for $500. Lane Cedar Chest co., advertising material The current mayor of Altavista is Mike Mattox, a former teacher and local businessman. Now operated by the same company, both railroad lines are still very active in the Altavista area. The former Virginian Railway became part of the Norfolk and Western Railway in 1959, and it and the Southern Railway were combined in the early 1980s to form the current Norfolk Southern Railway. Named for the Lane family farm in Albemarle County, the new town of Altavista was incorporated in 1912.
DREXEL HERITAGE FURNITURE IN NASSAU COUNTY FREE
Settlement was encouraged by the awarding of free lots. Three Lane brothers purchased 2,000 acres (8.1 km 2) of land near the point where the railroads would intersect, and had civil engineers lay out a new town with streets and lots, complete with water, sewer, telephone service, and electric lines.

Lane Brothers Construction Company was the contractor for constructing 32 miles (51 km) of the Tidewater Railway, including its crossing of the existing north-south Southern Railway in Campbell County. Although it was a common carrier and offered limited passenger service until 1956, the main purpose of the Virginian Railway was to haul bituminous coal from the mountains to coal piers on the ice-free harbor of Hampton Roads. Planned by Campbell County native William Nelson Page and financier and industrialist Henry Huttleston Rogers, the Tidewater Railway was combined with the Deepwater Railway in West Virginia to form the new Virginian Railway in 1907. The town of Altavista was created in 1905 during the construction of the east-west Tidewater Railway between Giles County (on the border with West Virginia) and Sewell's Point in what was at the time Norfolk County. 4.1 Altavista High School Team State Championships.
