Chapter 23
-- Compiled by the Cumberland Women's Club
and Published by the Cumberland Advocate
1874-1974
(used by permission of the Cumberland Advocate)
Donated by Linda Mott
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Logging and Lumber Industry
The immense tracts of white
pine and hardwood timber, including oak, maple, basswood and birch, gave
rise in the Cumberland vicinity in the seventies, not only to extensive
logging operations, but also to some large lumber and planing mills which
flourished until the available supply of timber had been exhausted around
the turn of the century. The City of
Cumberland owes its existence
to this forest land, and began developing with the coming of the railroad
in 1878. Saw mills assumed increasing importance and by 1879 and 1880 two
large saw mills went into production. By the summer of 1885 Cumberland
had a population of 1,486 and was credited with having more small mills
than any other area in the country.
In the spring of 1880 the first
mill was built by Mansfield and Lang in North
Cumberland on the site now occupied by Don's Bait and Sports Shop. The
firm operated the plant for about two years when it was purchased by the
S.G.
Cook and Company. They leased it to E.G. Oliver
and Company who managed it for a brief period, when Cook and company
again took possession.
After running for nearly a
season it was destroyed by fire in 1884. E.L. Hunter
then bought the site and what was known for years as the North
Cumberland Mill. It included a saw, planing and shingle mill, and
Mr. Hunter also manufactured furniture stock, employing a large number
of men. Their logs came from a radius of twelve miles and around the chain
of lakes. Both this mill and the Beaver Dam Lumber
Company had camps around Sand, Kidney and Beaver Dam Lakes, and
because the water in Beaver Dam Lake was 15 feet higher, the logs cut west
of Sand Lake had to be sent through a flume with the aid of chains and
a steam engine into smaller Kidney Lake, and then into Beaver Dam Lake.
The North Cumberland Mill closed in 1892.
The Beaver Dam Lumber Company, one of the leading corporations of Northern Wisconsin, was established in Cumberland in 1879 by Griggs and Foster of St. Paul, and in 1881 consolidated with Stone and Maxwell. Their mill was built on Mill Hill on what is now known as the Talbot Addition. They soon became known as the Cumberland Lumber Company, and sold their pine land and mill to the Beaver Lake Lumber Company, of which the principal stockholders were: H.E. Southwell, Jeff T. Heath and L.B. Royce, and their other interest to Griggs, Foster and J.F. Miller. Mr. Miller came to Cumberland as a partner of Griggs and Foster in 1879 and opened a general store for the lumbermen, the Miller Mercantile Company (later the Company Store). In 1887 the firm of Griggs, Foster and Miller purchased the interests of the Beaver Dam Lake Company, including mills and a large tract of pine land, and in 1888 became incorporated as the Beaver Dam Lumber Company. The company had a stock of $200,000 and their business comprised a large saw mill, shingle mill and planing mill. Improvements were made in 1891 and this brought the capacity up to 60,000 feet of lumber and 175,000 shingles a day. By 1894 the lumber cut by the company was 11,102,484 board feet; lath, 3,543,500 and shingles, 11,801,205. The original mill burned in the forest fire of 1898, was rebuilt on the same site, and is the mill the old-timers remember today. J.F. Miller, vice president of the company managed it and the Mercantile Store until his death in 1892. His son, F.W. then managed the store while another son, W.G. Miller and S.H. Waterman managed the Lumber Company. Depletion of available timber forced this mill to close in 1911. In 1903 the Beaver Dam Lumber Company sold the Mercantile Store to the Miller-Waterman Company. The Millers managed it until it was sold to S.W. Hines in 1921.
During the time of the big mills the numerous small mills around the area did custom sawing for settlers who hauled in their own logs and had them made into lumber for building their homes and farm buildings.
Some of the other area mills in the early years of logging, from the 1880s through the 1890s were: The Corbitt Mill at Comstock; the Northern; the Northern Lumber Company at Sprague; DeGraw Mill where County Trunk P and T join; Soule and Rudd north end of Vermillion Lake; J.C. Bennet Mill at the south end of town; L.O. Larsen at Granite Lake; Oliver and Company, Barronett Lumber Company; Chapman and Son, Silver Lake; G. Smith, east of Silver Lake; Grenquist Mill at McKinley; Mattson Mill at Horse Shoe Lake, later moving to Largon Lake; Smith and Algeo at Granite Lake; Gore-Stinson and W.L. Hunter Mill at Almena. In 1894 Brook and Luff had a heading mill south of Stokley's. In 1897 it burned down and was rebuilt by Keyes and Cole and was located near where the disposal plant is now. They were known as the Keyes and Cole Heading Mill and manufactured barrel staves and heads. S.H. Waterman and Frank L. Olcott, employees of the Beaver Dam Lumber Company, formed a partnership in a Hardwood Lumber Manufacturing Company hiring about 75 men to log at Sand Lake in 1885. The famous Knapp-Stout Company of the Chippewa Valley was operating on Miller's Creek northeast of town, and the Richard King Lumber Camp was cutting timber at the northwest head of Beaver Dam Lake. This area later became the F.W. Miller farm and is now the location of the Dr. Donald Cramer home and surrounding area. S.W. Hines who came to Cumberland in 1879 as a bookkeeper and buyer for the Beaver Dam Lumber Company, later went into partnership with O.A. Ritan and Company, dealers in general merchandise and pine and hardwood lumber. They owned and operated a mill 12 miles from Cumberland, near Granite Lake.
The Miller-Olcott
Lumber Company, built by W.G. Miller
and Frank Olcott in 1912, was an extension
of the Beaver Dam Lumber Company, which closed in 1911. Olcott moved to
California in the 20s and in 1930, after the death of W.G. Miller, the
business was sold to the Anderson Yards of
Bayport, Minnesota. In November of 1936 the company was purchased by
Henry
Rose of Cumberland, and Lawrence Mayer
of Stillwater, Minnesota. Mr. Rose had worked for the Miller-Olcott Company
since 1914. The Mayer-Rose Lumber Company
served the Cumberland community until October, 1972, when it was sold to
the Lampert Yards.
The Liberty
Lumber Company, built in 1915 by Wilsey and
Landon at the south end of town, was moved to a new location on
Main Street in January of 1902. In 1925 the business was bought by the
Lampert Yards Company. This building was torn down in 1972 and the property
purchased by the Holiday Village. The managers
down over the years were: Dewey Killmer,
Orville
Lowe, Mr. Dahlquist, J.L.
Holbert, O.B. Strand, Jerry
Edwards, Bob Boortz, Jerry
Wasko and Ken Burseth. Mike
Klich was manager when the Yard purchased the Mayer-Rose Lumber
Company in 1972 and has remained as manager of the newly merged organization
of the Lampert Yards, occupying the buildings of the former Mayer-Rose
Lumber Company.
References: Mart Wick--book; A.H. Miller--book; George Johnson--records.
Information: Ben
Connor, Henry Rose, Mike
Klich and Jack Nelson.
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