From the Vaults!

Recently I visited the University of Iowa Special Collections to peruse their William J. Young collection and Curtis Collection. What follows are some of the interesting asides I discovered. The order is simply the order I photocopied the documents.

1. from September 20, 1887, a receipt for the Provident Woodyard from Chicago, Illinois. The note was for "1 car edgings each week until further notice." The receipt was signed by McCauliff.
        The woodyard was located at 395 N. Clark Street. From the research, the wood yard was created to serve the unemployed, mainly those who found employment difficult to obtain. The Wood Yard seemed to be under the Chicago Relief and Aid Society. They opened multiple lumber yards.

2. A note from Ellis, Kansas dated September 9, 1887. The note most likely says: "Gentlemen, your special list of #5 for 188? at hand but can not tell anything by that. Send us ? prices on your stock and we may be able to buy something. Our sale from Kansas City here is 23 cents for 100#. Yours truly, Nicholson ?" There are pencil markings for O.K. 40 cents. William seems to have sent an answer of September 13, 1887 based off the note.

    Most likely, the company William Young was communicating with was Nicholson Brothers. I find records of two brothers, Jack & Ralph, who were born in 1887 & 1888. They went on to not only own a lumber yard but coal interests as well. In 1894, they were listed as one of two lumber companies in the town of Ellis. For the inquiring minds, The Reference Book of Lumbermen's Credit Association has for Lyons: Disbrow, M.A, (credited as manufacturing and d & b), Gardiner, Batchelder, & Welles (lumber and sawmill), Joyce D (lumber & sawmill), Lohberg F (lumber) Lyons Lumber Company (lumber and sawmill) and Sorenson Jens (p m s d & b). For Clinton: Clinton Box & Mfg Co (mfrs boxes); Clinton Lumber Company (lumber & sawmill); Curtis Brothers (mfrs s d & b); Gabriel & Siddle Company (l bks & h w l); Lamb C & Sons (lumber s & p m); Peterson Bell & Company (mfrs boxes); Smith F & Sons (mfrs boxes); Young W.J. & Company (lumber, sawmill, & p m). So this is a total of just 6 sawmills in 1894.

If you trust the web, it seems Nicholson Brothers lasted until 1972 when Trio Home Center bought the company. The Trio Home Center claims the the lumber yard opened in 1876.

3. Letter dated September 9, 1887: A quick aside, it was amazing to see how many letters Young got everyday, and all of them just about the same. Orders were not very business like, a fact that George L Curtis would remark on in the early 1900's. He felt his forefathers in the company didn't keep good enough books... Perhaps one problem, as will be evident in further letters, was that Young was always looking for bookkeepers.

The letter was from John Nicoll, dealer in Lumber, Sash, Doors, Blinds, Mouldings, Hard and Soft Coal. The firm was Goldfield, Iowa.

   Transcription:

W.J. Young & Company
 Dear Sirs,

Please ad to my order ofthe 6th inst, 400 feet of no 4 stock 12 inch wide 12 feet long S2S must be dry  be shure and get this in as I want it at once. Leave out some of the ? in my order if need be to get this in and oblige
yours,
John Nicoll
William answered on 9/12/87.

September 9 was a Friday in 1887, so Young answered them pretty quickly.

John Nicoll seems to have been born in Canada in 1847 and had ten children before he passed away in 1914. Goldfield is right off the Boone River and has 621 people in it today. In 1880, it had 90. In 1890 it had nearly 350.

4. Document four is nearly illegible. More to come on this one.


5. One of the very interesting things present in most of Young's boxes were Night Messages from The Western Union Telegraph Company. This one was from John Nicoll of Goldfield from Document 3. The date was 9/9, and John asked William "Hold my order until you receive my letter."

Curious why he didn't send the telegraph to begin with.

6. A letter from Office of R. Newton Successor to River Sioux Lumber Company Dealer in Lumber, Lath, Lime, Coal, ?
Letter was sent from Missouri Valley, Iowa on September 25, 1887.

WJ Young & Company
(Note I have no idea if the transcription is right and I have no idea what it all means!)

I think if you can load Thursday I can make it if I can sure to get in the car here by Saturday morning. I can make it work all right.
        Your ?
       R. Newton

R, Newton is most likely Reuben Newton. They lived in River Sioux, Iowa, one of the thousands of railroad towns that were platted but never became incorporated. So in reality they lived in Missiouri Valley, Iowa as in 1883, Reuben and his family moved to Missiouri Valley, Iowa and opened the lumber company. Interestingly, Reuben was born in New York in the 1840's,

7. More to come

8. Dated September 1, 1887, a letter from C.W. Rodman & BRC Fruit, Produce and Commission Merchants.

The letter came from LaCrosse, Wisconsin, and the company sold potatoes, onions, apples, and melons in car lots and Fish, Game and Poultry shipped to all parts of the country.

Dear,