A frustration of mine is trying to remember all the people, all the firsts, all the terms, all the legislation, all the events of a subject. The joy of my job is I'm charged with making sense of all these "facts" and turning them into stories.
I find that a continually updated encyclopedia of knowledge works the best. Bookmark this post, as this post will never be finished. Please feel free to add suggestions/entries below in the comments. Include your sources if you can. No factoid is too obscure or small to be included. If you want to add to any existing entry or correct any entry, please leave a comment. If anyone wants to help write for the blog or this entry, I can give you the power of the pen. While our museum focuses on Clinton, the entire history of sawmills and the lumber industry fits this encyclopedia. The hope is that the next time someone says, "Well when was the first sawmill fire in Clinton?" I can say well I think it is this, but let me check my encyclopedia....
Entries:
A note on citation. As I'm finding new sources all the time, instead of offering Author and details, the sources will be organized off letter and corresponding page number/placement.
People:
Batchelder, D.J.:
Dulany, George W.: Born in Hannibal, Missouri in 1855, George would go on to establish the Eclipse Lumber Company.
John Ericsson, Inventor: At the age of ten, John, born in Sweden on July 31, 1803, designed and built a miniature sawmill. (B, 16) Why is he famous? He, along with his brother and others, designed and built the Monitor, the ironclad used by the US during the Civil War.
Gardiner, Silas: Silas served in the General Assembly of Iowa from 1892 to 1894, but he got his start as one of the pioneering lumbermen of Lyons. His father's friend was Chancy Lamb, and it was with the Lambs that Silas got his start. Eventually Sials bought in with the Lambs in the company Lamb, Byng Lumber. In 1877, this company became C. Lamb & Sons. Silas had a home both in Clinton and Laurel, Mississippi. Jumping from a train in 1878 caused him to lose his legs.
Haun, William G. : Operated Union Grist Mill which opened in 1856. The mill was located on the river about 8 blocks from The Sawmill Museum.
Logsdon, Laurence: Laurence moved to Clinton in 1880 and he worked as an edger in the mills for three years.
Smith, George C.: An English immigrant, George went from farming with this father in Elvira, Iowa to working in the mills to being an original founder and eventual president of Clinton Paper Company. He got his start in the mills as an engineer at the newly started up Clinton Lumber Company. He also worked for the Lamb & Sons mill.
Stumbaugh, G.H.: With partner Samuel Cox built the first sawmill in Lyons in 1855. The mill was purcahsed by Ira Stockwell in 1859.
Thorn, George: Mirroring many frontier communities, George Thorn built the town of Toronto, Iowa through the construction of a sawmill in 1844, a grist mill two years later, and then economic centers like a store. The mill, Wolfe's History of CC doesn't define which, was sold multiple times until its eventual destruction by fire on April 19, 1909. It's longest owner was David O. Kidd. An amazing set of documents on George Thorn: https://www.legis.iowa.gov/DOCS/LSA/History_Docs/11th%20GA/Thorne,%20George%20W.pdf
Wadleigh, L.B.:
Welles, E.P.:
Wisner, Frank: Son of Frank George Wisner, a lumberman born in Clinton, and Mary Jeanette Gardiner, of Clinton. Frank Wisner was an early head figure in the CIA and the OSS.
Tools:
Hand Spike: Early river drive tool to cant and lift logs. It was a five foot pole with a spike (A, 124).
Peavey: The tool is named after Joseph Peavey, a Maine resident and forger, who place a spike on a five-foot ironwood stock, like a handspike, but added the "pointed, thumb-like hook to move up and down, but not, like the swing dog, sideways (A,24)."
Pike Pole: Like a peavey, but usually longer at 12 feet, made of spruce or ash. It had a "blunt toe or a gaff similar to a boat hook (A, 124)."
Laws:
Log Cabin Law/ Preemeption Act of 1841: Legalized squatting rights. If a head of the family (certain definitions) had built a cabin on some land and paid the price of $1.25 per acre, then that head could obtain rights to up to 160 acres. (D/E)
Timber Culture Act of 1873: This law created an avenue for settlers to claim 160 acres of land by converting 40 acres of the land into timber. Aimed at the arid West and aimed at novice settlers, this law failed. The failure happened even after a reduction of the required acres for timber to ten acres.
Free Timber Act of 1878: If land had been reserved for mineral use, citizens could cut timber for their personal building needs. (D/E)
Timber and Stone Act of 1878: Allowed for individuals to purchase 160 acres of timber and mineral rich land from the government. Both acts of 1878 were exploited by lumber companies, as the "individuals" were agents of the lumber/timber companies. (D/E)
Companies:
Eastman, Gardiner, & Company: In 1891, the Lyons firm purchased a sawmill in downtown Laurel, Mississippi. The company operated until 1937 supposedly in Mississippi.
Eclipse Lumber Company: Originally established in Minneapolis in 1894, the firm moved to Clinton in 1910. By 1944, the company, based in Clinton, Iowa. had over 36 outlets. One feature of the company was the incorporation of home planning offices in their lumber yards.
Harrison, Ward, & Company
Itasca Company: Company founded by the W.T. Joyce and H.C. Ackeley in 1887. Invested together in the creation of the Itasca rail.Company based in Minnesota.
Joyce Lumber Company: Headquarters and branch office was located in Clinton. The company's legacy is now represented through the Joyce Foundation.
United Lumber Company
Wadleigh, Welles, and Co
Welles, Gardiner, & Co:
Events:
Terms:
Silviculture: The treatment of trees/forests as crops or really the growing and cultivation of trees.
Logging Boats & The River
Clinton Lumber Barons Other Businesses:
City National Bank: Bank was a partnership between the Lambs, Wadleighs, Curtises, Carpenters (relatives of Curtis), and others.
Clinton National Bank: Chartered in 1865, eventually the Youngs took ownership of the bank
Clinton Savings Bank: The Lambs and Youngs had interests in this bank
Sources:
A. http://books.google.com/books?id=tWosMqKAv1oC&pg=PA124&dq=pike+pole+peavey&hl=en&sa=X&ei=_ZGfUY-hCab7yAGZ2YGoDw&ved=0CD8Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=pike%20pole%20peavey&f=false
B. http://books.google.com/books?id=NmODrlEknzoC&pg=PA16&dq=miniature+sawmill+display&hl=en&sa=X&ei=W5GfUcDhEoOTyQG5lYGADw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=miniature%20sawmill%20display&f=false
C. http://books.google.com/books?id=odgOl06HasQC&pg=PA66&dq=christopher+columbus+sawmill&hl=en&sa=X&ei=vrS3UcDGLOz_4AO5wYDwBw&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=christopher%20columbus%20sawmill&f=false
D. http://books.google.com/books?id=dZYGdbWTXesC&pg=PA138&dq=homestead+act+logging&hl=en&sa=X&ei=s2j-UezRC5KByQH2l4HIBA&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=homestead%20act%20logging&f=false
E. http://books.google.com/books?id=bcdo0qlS0awC&pg=PA124&dq=%22log+cabin+law%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=E2z-UdybL6WOyAH8hoGQDA&ved=0CEQQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22log%20cabin%20law%22&f=false
F. http://www.msrailroads.com/EG&Co.htm
Friday, May 24, 2013
Friday, May 17, 2013
Roots of Logrolling & Lumberjack Festival
"A lumberjack will hold the log until you and your partner are on top of it. When the two of you are ready, the lumberjack simply lets go of the log. Now the game is on to see who can stay up the longest. After you fall in, hop back in line and do it again!" This exists only at our Third Annual Lumberjack Camp, held on July 13, on the grounds of The Sawmill Museum.
The Festival is our big event held the second Saturday of July annually that features 30-40 lumberjacks competing in multiple different events. We hope the log rolling demos and chances for fans attempting to stay on top of the log will be "a big occasion, and in the way of good cheer and a spontaneous flow of friendship and neighborly love (History of Jackson County, Georgia)."
With the lumber industry of the late 1800s focused on the Northwoods, the men and women living in the woods of Georgia would meet every year to "logroll" and have a big party. Oddly this logrolling was actually log-piling for a big bonfire. The people just called it logrolling and there were various branded "logrolls." The whole community would come out, have crafts (like we will have on July 13), a big dance at night (the Jaycee's will have a Street Festival), and a community building event.
Our notion of logrolling starts in the late 1800s, but with the word birler. The roots of logrolling come from a change of transportation in the mid-1800s. Replacing and/or challenging log rafts, log drives transported more logs at a quicker rate down the river. The art of log drive required a lumberjack to jump from one log to another as the logs made its way down the river to a log boom near a sawmill. As the logs bobbed and bounced in the fast current, men had to keep their balance. Logrolling was born out of survival.
The Festival is our big event held the second Saturday of July annually that features 30-40 lumberjacks competing in multiple different events. We hope the log rolling demos and chances for fans attempting to stay on top of the log will be "a big occasion, and in the way of good cheer and a spontaneous flow of friendship and neighborly love (History of Jackson County, Georgia)."
With the lumber industry of the late 1800s focused on the Northwoods, the men and women living in the woods of Georgia would meet every year to "logroll" and have a big party. Oddly this logrolling was actually log-piling for a big bonfire. The people just called it logrolling and there were various branded "logrolls." The whole community would come out, have crafts (like we will have on July 13), a big dance at night (the Jaycee's will have a Street Festival), and a community building event.
Our notion of logrolling starts in the late 1800s, but with the word birler. The roots of logrolling come from a change of transportation in the mid-1800s. Replacing and/or challenging log rafts, log drives transported more logs at a quicker rate down the river. The art of log drive required a lumberjack to jump from one log to another as the logs made its way down the river to a log boom near a sawmill. As the logs bobbed and bounced in the fast current, men had to keep their balance. Logrolling was born out of survival.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Abraham Lincoln & The New Salem Sawmill
Sadly not everything is recorded in history. There is no pay stub showing that Abraham Lincoln worked at New Salem's sawmill. Funny though, he did work in a sawmill -- well the grist mill side of Denton Offutt's mill. In 1831, Offutt gave Lincoln his first job in New Salem. At the mill, Lincoln's work ethic and his dealing with farmer's wheat caught the eye of visitors and townspeople alike.
Sadly, no one talked about Abe working in the sawmill. What's important for us though is Lincoln found himself working at the heart of "every" frontier community. New Salem's founders owned the grist & sawmill, and it served as the economic magnet for New Salem. While not necessarily the first business in a town, the appearance of a mill in a town drove commerce. It brought surrounding farmers to town, and to capitalize on the farmer's waiting for their lumber of milled crops, businesses popped up to take their money. Surveyors and town planners used the presence of a mill to drive sales and prices.
In July 1831, Abe found himself working at this center. The truth is that while some saw him work the mill, Lincoln mainly worked Offutt's store. Abe's boyhood life illustrated why it was so important for a town to have a dual mill in the heart of town operated by water or animals. As a boy, he went with his father over seven miles to a hand-grind mill. Here he fell in love with the machinery of the mills, and supposedly could watch the mills for hours (Burlingame).
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| Working model sawmill housed at New Salem |
In July 1831, Abe found himself working at this center. The truth is that while some saw him work the mill, Lincoln mainly worked Offutt's store. Abe's boyhood life illustrated why it was so important for a town to have a dual mill in the heart of town operated by water or animals. As a boy, he went with his father over seven miles to a hand-grind mill. Here he fell in love with the machinery of the mills, and supposedly could watch the mills for hours (Burlingame).
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