The Footprints of a Wisconsin Lumber Executive: The Life of William Wilson, His Family, and the Company He Founded

By Jan M. Long

When one studies the history of Wisconsin, it is impossible to ignore the significant role played by the lumber industry during the Nineteenth Century. Down through the years, many authors have discussed the history of the lumber industry in Wisconsin during this era. No discussion of this subject is complete without reference to the dynamic impact of The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company and its founder, William Wilson...due to its dominating role in the industry. Consequently, many authors have referenced this company and its founder. However, up to this point, no book has been exclusively devoted to this famed company, and its founder. This volume tells the compelling story of William Wilson, who built a world class lumber empire in the woods of Wisconsin. It collects this secondary information, that is, the relevant published accounts of this company and its founder, weaving it together with primary sources. In the end, we have a volume which brings into shaper focus, the history of Northwestern Wisconsin's Red Cedar Valley, and the forces which forever modified the geographical character of the region.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Feb 5, 2001
• ISBN: 9781469704982

Jan M. Long

Jan M. Long holds a Bachelor of Science in Management, and a Master of Health Administration degrees, both from Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, California. Jan also holds a Juris Doctor degree from Western State University, Fullerton, California. He as held faculty positions with the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry; University of La Verne graduate program in Health Administration; and Riverside Community College. Currently, Jan holds an Administrative position with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office, Riverside, California.

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All Rights Reserved © 2001 by Jan M. Long

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

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ISBN: 978-1-4697-0498-2 (eBook)

This volume is dedicated to my grandmother,

Margaret (Wilson) Long, granddaughter of Captain

William Wilson, and to my father John Murray Long both, of whom, possessed some of that irrepressible

Wilson energy.

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter One

The Lumber Industry Of 19th

Century Wisconsin

I. Introduction

II. Geographical Considerations

III. Industrial Considerations A. Evolution of Production

IV. Political, Cultural and Social Environment

V. Decline of the Industry

VI. Retrospective

Chapter Two

The Rise And Fall Of The

Knapp, Stout & Co. Company

I. Introduction

II. The Red Cedar Valley A. Geography

III. The Partnership

IV. Corporate Operations

V. Political Influence A. Public Office

VI. Growth and Size of the Firm

VII Retrospective A. Obstacles

Chapter Three

Historical Development And

Remaining Remnants:

I. Introduction

II. The Influence of Reforestation

III. Knapp-Stout Influence of Place-Names

IV. Knapp-Stout Influence of Place-History

V. Retrospective

Chapter Four

Profile Of A Nineteenth

Century Visionary

I. Introduction

II. Moving West

III. The Fort Madison Years

IV. The Wisconsin Years A. Birth of a Town

V. Epilogue A. Last Days

Chapter Five

The War Of Rebellion

I. Introduction

II. Wisconsin’s Role in the War Between the States

III. The Wilsons go to War

IV. The Sixth Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

V. The Fifth Wisconsin Infantry Regiment

VI. Conclusion

Chapter Six

The Evolution Of The Wilson Family

I. Introduction

II. Thomas B. Wilson

III. Eliza Wilson

IV. Martin Hale Wilson A. Introduction

V. Jane Hale Wilson LaPointe

VI. Mary Wilson McLean

VII. William Wilson, Jr.

VIII. Ellen Wilson Mead

IX. Angelina Wilson Stout A. Introduction

X. Sarah Wilson Harris

About the Author

Appendix A

Appendix B

Appendix C

Endnotes:

Foreword

In his latest work, Jacques Barzun explains what he believes a historian to be: …a storyteller who tries to unfold the intricate plot woven by the actions of men, women, and teenagers … whose desires are the motive power of history..* By this definition, Jan Long certainly qualifies as a historian, for he has sought to tell the story of a man and a company, while unraveling the complex interplay of geography, economics, and politics with the drives and desires of a family living out the results of the interrelationship in west central Wisconsin.

The story of Captain William Wilson is, in a sense, the Horatio Alger story that Americans so love: poor boy through hard work makes good. It is also the working out of Horace Greeley’s injunction, Go West, young man. For, as Long shows, Wilson, a poor young man, left Pennsylvania for Fort Madison, Iowa; and then left that city for western Wisconsin where he became a wealthy man as a result of his founding of what was to become The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company, one of the largest lumbering companies in the world in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century. In telling Wilson’s story, Long has also rescued a history, for this dramatic story had been in danger of being lost. The Company closed in 1901 and was finally dissolved in 1926. Its lumber camps in northern Wisconsin rotted into oblivion; its mills were torn down or sumbmerged as lake and river levels were raised; and the palatial homes of its four partners in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa, fell to the wrecking ball or were radically altered as they were adapted for other uses. Perhaps the ultimate indignity came when the wife of a Wilson grandson destroyed many of the family’s historically significant papers because she felt that history was quite useless.

The turn-about in this sad story began when a family, unaware of its history, bought the Wilson home (significantly changed in size and style) in Menomonie, Wisconsin. Discovering the history that lay behind their purchase, they launched a program of research and restoration and in 1976 opened the house as a historic house museum. A few years later, Jan Long, a Wilson descendent already interested in telling the family’s story, came to Wilson Place as a part of a family reunion. The intersection of these two parties, each committed to unraveling the family and company history, excited both to continue their work.

One of the results is this book, on which Long has spent years in research, pulling together the bits and pieces from government documents, newspapers, interviews with Wilson descendents, and search for the truth in local stories. He has furnished us with an excellent work, faithfully telling the family story and integrating that with the Company’s history. Long has also followed Barzun’s dictum, for the people in this story …appear as persons, not merely as actors, for history is above all concrete and particular, not general and abstract. [history] is the thoughts and deeds of once living human beings.**

Of course, history does not come to an end; each piece of information opens avenues to yet more information; the story can be continued and enlarged. And the descendents of Captain William Wilson, as they learn their family history, are themselves in the act of creating the latest chapter of this fascinating story, thus providing material for an ever ongoing history.

Ellwyn Hendrickson, Director Wilson Place Mansion Menomonie, Wisconsin

Acknowledgements

It is not possible to complete a project of this scope without being in the debt of others who have contributed in some significant way. Thanks goes first of all to Iris Joy (Donaldson) Bradley and to Marjorie Larson for their initial efforts in putting together some of the first Wilson family genealogies; to Sylvia Budd and to Ray Olson who put ever more detailed and complete genealogies together. Particular thanks go to Ellwyn Hendrickson for editorial reviews and assistance in preparation of earlier drafts. Finally, I would like to express particular appreciated to John, Jackie and Timothy Dotseth who have cared enough about Northwestern Wisconsin history to have made a personal, tangible investment in that history through restoration of the Wilson Place, and preservation of historic artifacts for the cultural benefit of the community.

Introduction

This volume represents an effort to discuss the history of Northwestern Wisconsin’s Red Cedar Valley region during the Nineteenth Century. This effort, of course, is not entirely unique, as there have been many others who have presented this history. But this volume does attempt to play a unique role among the presenter of this history in that, for one thing, it attempts to tell the story with primary emphasis on the one individual having the most dominating and enduring influence on the Nineteenth Century Red Cedar Valley. The individual being referenced is Captain William Wilson, founder of The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company. (1) One hundred years have now lapsed since the Company closed its doors in 1901.

When one considers any person’s history, it can be thought of both in individual and in corporate terms. Clearly, every individual builds a history that has corporate impact to a greater or lesser extent. In most cases, individual history is created with a big I and corporate history is created with a small c.

In the case of William Wilson it really goes without saying that his individual history extends well beyond himself, his individual history having significant corporate impact on northwestern Wisconsin. His history brings to the community a cultural and environmental context that provides a more complete regional self-identity and, thus, opens a significant window of explanation regarding the present status of things. Though clearly, William Wilson did not crawl out of bed each morning contemplating that he was writing the history of a region, from the perspective of the year 2000, he unmistakably was. For him, corporate history was written with a large C.

This project was initiated with limited objectives and consequently had a very modest beginning. It’s genesis occurred in 1997 when Marjorie Larson, a great-granddaughter of William Wilson, provided this author with a few key documents which were both interesting and at the same time represented important pieces of information with respect to the Wilson family. Some of this information included never before seen chronologies authored by Carl Wilson, grandson of William, of events and places where Carl’s family lived during his childhood. When this was put next to several hours of taped interviews with a couple of William’s granddaughters, Margaret (Wilson) Long and Jane (Wilson) Oakley, and a few notes from interviews with other family members it was decided that this was information others might very well be interested in. This led to a decision to get this information down in organized form so that it might be shared with a larger audience.

Several individuals were mentioned in the acknowledgment that deserves special mention here. Back in the 1980’s, Iris Joy (Donaldson) Bradley developed some of the most detailed genealogical records of William Wilson to exist at the time. It was organized to show his ancestry and descendants, and was specifically detailed with respect to the Martin Hale Wilson (William’s son) branch of the family. Subsequently, this research was revised and update in 1990 by Marjorie Larson, who has been most helpful in providing additional information on the Wilson Family as indicated above. Sylvia Budd, a great-great granddaughter of William Wilson, has also been involved in family research down through the years and has provided a number of helpful genealogically related clarifications and corrections. Pauline Long, the mother of this author and married to a great-grandson of William Wilson, has provide significant information with several taped interviews with Margaret (Wilson) Long of her childhood memories. Finally, a great deal of credit goes to researcher Raymond Olson who is related to Martin Hale

Wilson’s second wife Lynda Plemon and did a fairly extensive compilation of her ancestry and descendency.

Though the original scope of this project was a lot more modest than what has become the end result, it seems that once emersed in the details, the project took on a life of its own and just grew. The original intent was to focus on the family and descendants of Martin Hale and Lynda Delia (Plemon) Wilson by recording their histories and stories. But the summation of this information would be far from complete without a full discussion of Martin’s father, Captain William Wilson, famed for The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company. This led to research of the history of the lumber industry in Wisconsin, and more specifically the history of The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company.

Chapter One begins by setting the stage for much of what took place in the Red Cedar Valley and throughout much of Wisconsin during the Nineteenth Century. It does so by considering the political, cultural and geographical environment of the era which paved the way for the dramatic extent of lumbering activity which took place, it becoming a dominating industry in the region. But just as dramatically as this industry evolved economically and politically, it disappeared from the state. This Chapter will consider the reasons for this occurrence.

Chapter Two focuses on the one company that dominated Northwestern Wisconsin for more than a half century, that being The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company. We review the history of the company with its evolution from that of a small operation to become, by all accounts, one of the largest lumber company in the world, headquartered in Menomonie, Wisconsin. But just as the lumber industry in Wisconsin had a dramatic rise in productivity, which abruptly came to an end, so also the Knapp, Stout & Co. Company had a similar history. As will be discussed herein, these parallel histories are linked to some extent, but it was not a necessary linkage and some of the reasons for Knapp-Stout’s demise were due to factors unique to the company. These factors are considered in some detail.

Chapter Three brings one to the discovery that a lot of evidence of this historic past yet remains, not only in records and documents of the numerous communities in the region, but also can be found in the altered landscape and in place-names.

Chapter Four is the point at which the reader officially meets, William Wilson, the leading individual responsible for the founding of the Knapp-Stout Company. His beginnings are tracked, from his native state of Pennsylvania, to his migration to Fort Madison, Iowa, and finally to his home at Menomonie, Wisconsin where he lived his remaining years. This chapter takes a look at his life in its historical setting and considers the important milestones that occurred in his life. One discovers a man of dynamic leadership who went searching for an opportunity, and upon finding it in the woods of Wisconsin, seized upon it. His success was aided by a tenacity of spirit and foresight, he being one to ever maintain a forward-moving push with purposefulness of action. Because of his major impact on the Red Cedar Valley, he is a man of some significance to the history of Wisconsin, and led a life that may be instructive today.

Chapter Five takes a look at the Civil War and its impact on the Wilson family. As it turns out the Wilson’s were very much involved in the Civil War, as were most families in Dunn County and the state of Wisconsin.

The sixth and final chapter takes a look at the known information on the children of William Wilson. Quite a bit is known about some children, while little is known about other children. The more significant information known is addressed. This chapter leads quite nicely into Appendix A, which really is an extension of Chapter Six in that it offers up a genealogy of the descendants of William Wilson, providing a brief summary of the lives of all the known descendants.

Appendix B provides information on Lynda Plemon’s ancestry, the second wife of Martin Hale Wilson.

Appendix C provides the text of an address the author delivered at Bethel College and Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota in September 2000, a college that owes its existence to the sustaining financial support of William Wilson during a difficult financial period in its history.

The foregoing, then, represents a synopsis of this volume, but there is something that should be said about the research methodology. As it turns out, there are quite a few published accounts regarding The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company, and its founders. This always has an easing effect on the research effort. For this reason, a great deal of this book relies upon these secondary source materials. However, as is occasionally the case with secondary source material, factual discrepancies crop up between these sources. Rather than ignore these discrepancies, it has been this authors studied practice to either attempt to resolve the discrepancy through primary source material, or to point out variations in accounts which should prove helpful to future researchers. Occasionally, primary sources have helped in resolving existing disputes in the factual material, but even primary sources have sometimes comes with contradictions. Nonetheless, primary sources have aided our overall understanding by adding to our existing body of knowledge.

On a point related to objectivity, it should be disclosed that this author is related to the subject of this volume, William Wilson, he being a great-great grandfather. This may call into question the ability of this author to handle the material in an objective, unbiased fashion. However, it should be made clear that this volume makes no attempt to present a sanitized version of history. In fact, it should forthrightly be stated that down through the years, critics and detractors of William Wilson and/or the Knapp, Stout & Co. Company, have raised questions about various actions and policies of the Company. These issues are dealt with in open fashion. But as we all know issues usually have more than one side to them, and so this author has attempted to confront some of these more controversial issues head-on and discuss them in a fair and balanced fashion.

In putting this project together, it has been discovered that the process of sifting through the facts is much like putting a giant puzzle together. Unfortunately some of the pieces of the puzzle, as in all history, are still missing. So while this volume does not pretend to be definitive in nature, it does intend to combined and coordinate the facts in a manner which has not been done before. In acknowledging the limiting parameters of this project it is this author’s belief that the definitive volume is yet to be written.

In the end, the main contribution of this volume may come with the organization it brings too the great body of information scattered around out there on William Wilson and the Knapp-Stout Company. A corollary contribution is represented in the new facts and insights that heretofore have never seen the light of day. To this, the author is hopeful that volume will be a useful resource.

Chapter One

The Lumber Industry Of 19th

Century Wisconsin

I. Introduction

One of the better kept secrets of early Wisconsin History is the story of William Wilson and the significant impact-for better or worse-he had on the development of Northwestern Wisconsin in terms of its geography, economics and population patterns. It is a compelling story and an American story of a man who, starting from scratch, built a lumber business regarded by many chroniclers to have been the largest company of its kind in operation anywhere in the world. As a nineteenth century notable within the lumber industry, he was instrumental in forever altering the landscape of this region and numerous communities can now trace their roots to the famed company he was instrumental in founding, The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company.

The story of the lumber industry in Wisconsin actually begins before William Wilson’s arrival in the state. Many mills trace their genesis to very early in the Nineteenth Century. The first saw mill built in the state has been identified as being in the Green Bay district near De Pere in 1809. However, significant lumbering operations did not begin there until twenty-five years later, in 1834. Other mills built very early in that century also ran into start-up trouble with Indians and natural disasters. One such mill established in the Chippewa district at the present site of Menomonie was finally developed into a successful operation in 1831.

This mill evolved into The Knapp, Stout & Co. Company, and was the first in the Chippewa Valley. It generally is considered among the early operational mills in the State of Wisconsin. (1)

Because William Wilson is so connected to the developmental history of Northwestern Wisconsin itself, it is important to have a broader context of understanding of the history of this region if we are to fully appreciate the contribution he made to it. So in this chapter gives brief consideration to this history in the context of the geographical and industrial conditions in Wisconsin which influenced the growth of the industry. Consideration will also be given to the social and political factors that affected development. Finally, consideration will be given to the myopic approach of Nineteenth Century industrial practices in lumbering which led to the demise of the industry in the state.

II. Geographical Considerations

A. Lumber Resources

Today when one thinks of the lumber industry, the natural inclination is to think first of the Pacific Northwest, areas such as Washington, Oregon and Northern California among others. One thinks of the Pacific Northwest because that is the focus of a majority of lumbering activities occurring in the United States at this time. However, this has not always been. There was a period of time in the Nineteenth Century when most of the nation’s lumbering activity was located in the Great Lake States region of Michigan and Wisconsin, and to a lesser extent, Minnesota. It was also an era when the map of the United States was significantly different from the one we look at today. For one thing, much of the western half of the continent still waited statehood. Consequently, at that time Wisconsin was a state in the American Northwest-not a state in the upper Midwest.

The center of the lumbering industry, originally located in New England, slowly shifted westward toward the Great Lakes region as the people of the Atlantic States crossed the Appalachian Highlands and began to settle the upper Mississippi Valley. It is interesting to note that lumbering activities were made possible by a forest belt which originally covered northern New England, New York, southern Canada, Michigan, and the greater part of Minnesota and Wisconsin, with an extension southward along the Appalachian Highland to Georgia.

The size and density of the white pine in the Great Lakes region was such that it provided the main timber supply of the nation until the early twentieth century when, ultimately, there were only very small areas which were not cut over. Much of the Midwestern region, being prairie, was devoid of timber suitable for building purposes, and as the settlers became more and more numerous the demand upon this forest belt grew ever greater. The Mississippi River and the Great Lakes afforded relatively easy access for lumber operators due to the tributaries which flow into them, seducing many at the time to conclude that there was an almost unlimited supply of lumber. (2)

One thing is certain, by the mid-Nineteenth Century, there were few states left which were so richly endowed with timber as Wisconsin. There were also very few states that had lumber and woodworking industries playing such an important a role in the economic life of their citizens. (3) When the early French traders and trappers first paddled their canoes silently down the rivers of Wisconsin, they found the greater part of the land covered with magnificent forests. Over one hundred billion board feet of white pine studded the banks of its rivers and intervening uplands. The area originally covered with merchantable timber was so great that the forests ranked second only to the soil as a natural resource. When the lumbering industry was at its height, the value of the output of the mills was almost $70 million annually. This may not seem like a significant sum in an age of mega-corporations, but one must keep in mind that this is in Nineteenth Century currency terms. The fact is that the value of this output exceeded the average annual gold output for the entire United States of that time. (4)

Although the greater part of the state was originally under forest, lumbering was the dominant industry only in the upper two-thirds. An almost unbroken forest covered this upper region. Marketable timber of economic value was confined largely to an area lying north of an irregular line running from the shores of Lake Michigan, near Milwaukee, in a broad curve northwestward past the southern end of Lake Winnebago, across southern Portage county and the Wisconsin River near the falls of the St. Croix River. North of this line, lie forty-five counties and parts of counties, with an area of approximately 18,700,000 acres, almost all of which, once, carried heavy growths of pine or mixed forests. Over thirty percent of this area was covered by species of conifer, and even in the mixed forests, pine was noticeably dominant. Jack pine, white pine, Norway pine, hemlock, oak, spruce, maple, birch, basswood, elm, and tamarack made up the greater part of the mixed forests. (5) White pines, (6) the most valuable tree of the northern woods was to be found in almost every part of this region. Consequently, it became the focus of much of the logging activity. It was primarily this wood which went into the buildings, fences, barns, and dwellings of the growing population of the state and the nation.

Ultimately, the drain upon the forest (7) was enormous. The prevailing attitude was that the forest supply was inexhaustible. Consequently, wasteful methods such as clear cutting employed. Within 50-60 years, the impact of this approach was so great, that what might have been a permanent source of supply, was largely exhausted in this region.

B. Area Topography

As shall be seen in this chapter there were a number of significant factors that contributed to the growth in the manufacture of lumber in Wisconsin. One of these factors is ascribed to the geographic conditions. The situation, surface, drainage, and climate were all clearly made positive contributions. The long cold winters with plenty of snow made it possible to cut the logs and haul them out by sled teams to the banks of the streams with the smallest amount of labor and expense. Then with the melting of snow and ice the river ways made it comparatively easy to float the logs to the mills on the high waters of the spring runoff.

Nearly as significant as the influence exerted by the favorable climate was that of the surface and drainage conditions. The region generally consists of a plains made up of gently rolling hills, nearly all of which slope a degree toward the south, southwest, and southeast. There were only a very few sections that were irregular enough to seriously interfere with the building of transportation routes. The slope of the surface directed the flow of the rivers southward into the prairies, and the Wisconsin streams were primarily used as a transportation route before the era of the railroads. Billions of feet of logs were floated down these streams, far beyond the boundary of the state. (8)

III. Industrial Considerations A. Evolution of Production

One cannot overstate the importance of the lumber industry to the development of the State of Wisconsin. It was said at the time, with an element of truth attached, that the wood industries have built every mile of railway and wagon road, every church and schoolhouse, and nearly every town, and that in addition it enabled the clearing of half the improved land of North Wisconsin. (9) Clearly, this was one of the biggest industries in the State during much of the nineteenth century. Lumber mills proliferated. At one point there were over one thousand mills operating in the state. (10) Most were small, but there were also a number of large operations as well.

Progress was slow at first and the annual value of the output did not reach $1,250,000 until 1850. After the close of the Civil War, however, the growth became much more rapid. The expansion was so rapid that by 1900, Wisconsin had not only overtaken, but had passed every other state in the Union in total production. The capital invested in the saw milling industry amounted to $100,000,000, a sum equal to one-third of the assessed value of all the land in the state. The following table, which gives the annual value of the total cut of rough lumber for the different census years shows how great the development had been. (11)

1850 about…$ 1,250,000

1860 about…4,500,000

1870 about…15,000,000

1880 about…18,000,000

1890 about…61,000,000

1900 about…58,000,000

1905 about…44,000,000

1910 about…30,000,000

B. Logging and the Logging Camps

While some mills did their own logging, many of them depended upon logging contractors for their supply of logs. Consequently there was a spectrum of conditions that could be found in the various camps. Frederick Merk, among others, reported in Economic History of Wisconsin during the Civil War Decade, (12) that the labor conditions in many of the lumber camps were less than ideal. The workday was long and hard, and the weather often inhospitably cold. Many companies had a policy of not having a thermometer in the camps, under the theory of what the workers did not know, they might not feel. This ignorance is bliss policy sort of fell apart in later years of the lumber camps as newspapers, and then subsequently, radios became more prevalent. Other conditions in the camps which were less than ideal included issues of the food of the workers which was often coarse and without variety; the lodgings in many cases were not to sanitary. Toilet tissue at the outhouses, for example, often consisted of old newspaper or dried leaves, nothing more. To top it off there were also widespread problems with alcohol abuse. Many logging contractors were financially irresponsible and/or dishonest with their employees, the lumberjacks. It was the lumberjacks who were often defrauded by their employers, the contractors, of the wages for part or all of an entire season.

Among the responsible companies and particularly among the large sawmill corporations company stores were frequently the source of much dissatisfaction. The employees, who were compelled to trade at such stores, often found when accounts were balanced at the end of the season that they not only had no wages due them, but also were actually in debt to the company for supplies, tobacco, and whisky.

Because conditions such as these in the camps were less than ideal, there were periods of labor shortages in the lumber industry. Commenting on this situation, Merk notes that the remoteness of the lumber camps from settlements, the rough and temporary nature of the work, and the unsatisfactory terms of employment were sufficient even in normal times to render the labor problem in the pineries a troublesome one. (13)

Even though conditions in the camps were often less than ideal, Merk nevertheless makes them the object of a rather flattering profile when he enticingly describes them as presenting to the spectator a combination of animated sights and sounds with hundreds of men busy each winter cutting and hauling logs. The rapid tap of the chopper’s ax, the sudden crash as here and there a majestic pine thundered to earth, the intermittent rip of the saw as it rent the fallen giant into logs. (14)

After the trees had been cut into sizes that were transportable, it is fascinating to study the methods used in those early days before powerful logging equipment was available. One can only imagine the logistics of transporting heavy timber. Oxen and horses were used and their use was made easier by placing the logs on sleds and transporting the timber on the slick surface of ice and snow. As Merk notes, one could often hear the jingle of bells on the ox-drawn sled as it slowly moved off with its load to the river bank, or on its return run for a new load of logs. One could also hear the hearty shouts of the loggers as they hastened about their work in the keen and exhilarating winter air. Then, as he so descriptively puts it, all this was the foreground for which, in strange contrast, the background was the solemn grandeur of the forest. (15)

C. Shipping Factor

Before the advent of rail transportation, it was the rivers of America that served as the primary means of moving people, consumer goods, and raw materials from one location to another. One of the greatest of these waterways was the Mississippi River given its width and length. At its peak usage as a transportation route, there were 6,000 steamboats moving up and down the river. It was indeed the superhighway of the Nineteenth Century.

Thus it was that in the early years of lumbering up until about 1874, shipments from the mills coming from the various sections of Wisconsin were almost exclusively by water. The mills on the eastside of the State relied on transporting product by way of the Great Lakes, while those mills located upon the Wisconsin River, as well as the Chippewa, Black, and Red Cedar, etc., rafted their product to markets. As a result, mills were generally located near the rivers and waterways so as to facilitate transportation. (16)

During this period Wisconsin’s lumber industry organized its activities into seasonal phases. As we just learned, the winter was spent in cutting and hauling the logs to the banks of the rivers and streams. Then with the coming of the spring thaw, the activity of timber cutting came to an end and loggers turned their attention to the log drive. This meant it was now time to send the logs down stream to the mills. (17) There were some years when the melting snows and spring rains were below normal, making the rivers inadequate as a medium of transport for the logs. On occasions when this situation arose there was no choice but to have the logs stay put until a more favorable year could carry them to market. On the other hand, when rivers were high, the loggers set about the hazardous task of delivering the accumulated inventory of the winter’s work to the swollen streams. (18)

In describing log driving, Merk again paints a rather colorful portrait. He observes that the drive was the most picturesque as it certainly was the most dangerous portion of the season’s operations. Down the ice-cold torrent thousands upon thousands of logs went surging and hurtling, sometimes halting at an obstruction as if in hesitation and piling up in rude masses, then rushing onward again with greater momentum than before. It was the business of the drivers to keep this unstable mass constantly moving over obstructions, across waterfalls, and around bends of the stream. Occasionally, in spite of precautions, a jam was formed to which, unless it could be quickly broken, the charging mass behind soon added huge dimensions. On the wild Chippewa River, in particular, jams reached great proportions. In the spring of 1869 one gathering was variously estimated to contain from 100,000,000 to 130,000,000 feet of logs. For two miles up the river to the depth of from twenty to fifty tiers, the pine was piled and wedged, completely obliterating for that distance all sight of water. Upon such a confused and treacherous mass the hardy drivers ventured with their iron-shod spikes, seeking with practiced eye to discover, and if possible to dislodge, the logs that formed the key to the tangle. Many a daring fellow lost his life in the wild rush of struggling pine that followed the successful breaking of a jam. (19)

One of the mechanisms employed to control the movement of the logs as they arrived at the mills downstream was the river boom. Booms were built for the express purpose of corralling log to prevent their movement down stream until they were wanted at the mills. In the beginning they consisted of a fixed obstruction placed in the river, or across some part of the channel, having the effect of stopping the logs and retaining them until wanted. This type of boom clearly had its drawbacks as it effectively closed the river to boat navigation. Thus, a second type of boom was invented in 1862 by Levi W. Pond, a lumberman from Eau Claire. It was referred to as a shear boom. Merk describes it as an ingenious device for intercepting and turning logs from the drive into the pond or pocket of the sawmill for which they were destined. It consisted of a chain of logs, secured at one end to the riverbank, upon which had been arranged a number of sturdy, collapsible rudders or fins. By merely opening or closing the fins with a rope held by the operator on shore, the boom could be thrown diagonally across the river and held in the current so as to steer the oncoming logs to their proper destination. When necessary, it could be withdrawn to permit the passage of boats and rafts. It was an application of the principle of the current ferryboat to the old windlass or anchored boom hitherto in general use. Patented by Pond in 1868, it was soon in use on every logging stream in the country that was subject to much traffic, and it played a part by no means unimportant in the expansion of the logging industry in Wisconsin. (20) The advantage of this type of boom is obvious as it freed up the main river channel, where steamboats and rafts were frequently passing, thus avoiding any disruption of the river traffic.

The rafts that were employed in shipping logs and milled goods to markets downstream were created for maximum effectiveness. Though rafts themselves had, at one time, been in the shape of flat platforms, a description of the type of rafts employed in the Wisconsin logging industry is discussed in some detail by George Hotchkiss in the History of the Lumber and Forest Industries of the Northwest. He suggests that they took on a crib shape. (21) They, in essence, consisted of milled lumber being fastened firmly together to form so-called ‘cribs,’ and top loaded with bundles of shingles and lath. Six or more cribs fastened end to end formed a ‘string’ upon which the well-conditioned raftsmen merrily descended the dangerous currents, usually with success, but occasionally with tragic results. (22)

Besides the occasional waterfalls, there were other rafting challenges. For instance, sandbars were a problem, particularly when the rivers were low. When they were present, they required some skill in river navigation.

Hotchkiss details some of this in the following passage, that when a raft approached one of the intricate passages of the river,

before the stern of the raft has passed the first named bar, one of the oarsmen seizes the snatch pole, and bounding into the water, hastens along the bar in the direction in which it is desired to hold the raft, and by rapid movement thrusts the heavy steel point of the pole into the sand, holding firmly to the other end at an angle of forty-five degrees, while the pilot quick as thought has the rope coiled around first one and then another of the grub pins, continually checking its onward course so that by the time the bar is passed, the raft lies nearly still below it; the raft is now easily controlled with the oars to the precise channel over the bar below, although involving the necessity of winding along a serpentine route that without the aid of the snatch pole could not have been made, as the raft would have drifted upon the bar, making it necessary to separate the cribs, and take them separately over or around, and to some convenient place for again coupling up. The shifting character of the Chippewa and Wisconsin rivers, the channels in which are subject to constant changes from the drifting sands, render economic devices to be of incalculable value. (23)

Most of the time rafts of lumber from the rivers of Wisconsin arrived at the Mississippi River with serious mishap, and by the time the rafters reached this point the most dangerous part of the job was behind them. Before continuing down the River, the lumber inventory was consolidated from eight to eighteen ‘strings’ which were known as a fleet. The trip down the Mississippi to the towns where the lumber was sold was usually uneventful, if not sometimes with a little raucous behavior of drinking and fighting on the part of the raftsmen.

Over time the average Mississippi River raft became progressively larger as mill production increased. In the period prior to the Civil War, 500,000 feet of lumber was considered a large load. But by 1870 the great lumber companies of the Chippewa River were sending to market rafts covering from three to four acres of surface and containing from 2,000,000 to 2,600,000 feet of milled timber.

Up to this time the motive force employed in lumber transporting had been by way of water currents, which provided the sole means of propulsion. So when, in 1864, steamboats were innovatively used to tow rafts of lumber to markets, the industry was transformed. These boats, which were specifically designed for the purpose, were able to move lumber to its destination in half the time than it had otherwise taken. In nearly the same ratio the cost of shipment was reduced. The transition to steamboats proved so successful that by 1873 there were seventy-three steamboats engaged in lumber towing on the upper river. (24)

Rafting lumber down the waterways of Wisconsin came with a number of drawbacks, some of which have already been discussed. Certainly the inflexibility of this system would have been high on the list of most everyone. It was just not possible to pick up and move a river to where it was wanted to go. It was necessary to figure out a way to work with what existed. This presented great obstacles to the utilization of timber far from the rivers. Another drawback in rafting lumber to destined markets was that in the process it became water-soaked and covered with mud. The labor and expense involved in rectifying this situation was represented in the delay incurred by running, pulling, piling and drying of the lumber. This all had an adverse effect on a manufacturer’s profit.

Finally, beginning about 1850, the railroad companies started to build westward from Chicago and the lake region. They made rapid progress and consequently over the next few decades nearly all sections of the prairie states and states of the Great Plains were supplied with rail transportation.

In spite of all the efforts of the northern Wisconsin lumber industry, however, it was not until around 1870 that the first railroads arrived in the heart of the lumber