USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 24
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the Green Bay Advocate reports that "the all absorbing business of lumbering has begun for the season."
There were at that time in Brown county thirty-five out of the 278 saw- mills throughout the length and breadth of Wisconsin, or an eighth of the entire number in the state. Of these four were in Green Bay, the remainder located on rivers entering the bay on the west side. Duck creek, Big and Little Suamico, Pensaukee, Peshtigo, the Oconto, all had one or two mills at this time, and as Oconto county was not set off from Brown until 1857, all this industry belonged to Brown county. Cowles mill at Wequiock, Anton Klaus at New Franken, were all doing prosperous trade during the fifties.
Rough but solidly built structures were the mills that sprang up in the clear- ings and along the streams of Brown county. Millions of shingles, staves and lath were manufactured by the hands of the early settlers, their wives and chil- dren throughout this section of heavily timbered country. A county school superintendent during the seventies tells of how as he drove through the county he found the good sized living room in every house furnished with a bench along either wall, and here all day long sat the owner's wife and children, mak- ing and packing the everlasting shingle ; their tools, a reever and draw knife. One of the very earliest settlers in the town of Howard was a shingle maker, John Marston by name, who emigrated to the place in 1830, supporting himself by fishing and making shingles. His name was later preserved in the creek on whose shores he lived and worked.
During the decade from 1850 to 1860, we generally regard Brown county as commercially at stagnation, but in reality it was engaged in one of the larg- est and most lucrative industries that has flourished in this section along any line before or since. The press alone gives one an insight into the large busi- ness transacted and that occupied a majority of the population. Every one knew that there was money in lumber, and that the lumbermen, especially at certain seasons of the year had plenty of ready cash. "When the logs come down," was a regular saying in those days for lavish expenditure in the towns.
During the month of May, the newspapers always devoted certain columns to "the drives." for then the "logs were coming down," and everything was hum- ming. Litigation among the rival firms at this season of year was frequent, and suits involving thousands of dollars brought money and practice into law of- fices and courts. There was a picturesque side to the work too. The gay voy- ageur in his gaudy toggery who canoed the streams of Wisconsin in fur trad- ing days and captured the imagination of the chronicler for all time by his Canadian boat songs and free, devil may care ways had now disappeared, and in his place strode in almost as captivating a figure that of the lad of the woods, of the axe and pineries, dressed in buckskin or corduroy with shoe packs and gay worsted socks, toque of striped flannel and bright sash of wool about the waist. In the fall the streets of Green Bay were alive with a busy throng and from all over the county came men and youths eager to be enlisted in the ranks of hardy woodsmen.
This is how Green Bay appeared in 1854: "The many mills in this vicinity make it a rendezvous for owners of mills and the large number of men en- gaged by them for the pineries. Men, oxen, horses and provisions are here supplied. You may talk to me about the carnival at Rome, and wild horses
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dashing along the Corso; a mere nothing to this babel of sights and sounds. There will be sawed by these mills, water and stream, the present year 80,000,000 feet of pine lumber. At this time there are 1.500 men, 300 yoke of cattle and 100 span of horses getting out logs for these different establishments.
"The United States Hotel of this place is the great headquarters of this an- nual army of lumbermen, going and coming during the close of navigation. Colonel George Farnsworth is the accomplished and gentlemanly landlord. Can speak English, French and Indian fluently and is withal a first rate gentlemanly fellow."
A large proportion of the mill hands at this time were French Canadians, who adored the life in the pineries, its excitement, good pay and good fare of pork, beans and coffee. As time passed and other nationalities crowded into the west, these Johnny Crapeaus were replaced by Germans, Irish and others, but there was always one of the French guild on hand with a fiddle to make the winter evenings gay in camp. Music and song were a part of the life of these gay fellows, who made the forest resound with their lusty voices.
B. F. Smith of DePere thus tells of the trade of those days: "The writer located at DePere in the autumn of 1851, and found employment at once in the lumber business. Previous to that date there had been only a few small mills to supply the local demand, viz. : Mr. Ingalls' shingle mill at Green Bay, the mill at Hill creek, one at Duck creek, one at Apple creek, and one on Plum creek at Wrightstown; all of these supplied only local trade. There were the remains of two old mills at the DePere dam and one owned by Randall Wil- cox. This last was running and doing some shipping to outside markets at that time and later materially increased its business in that line.
"Up to 1851, all these mills used the old style sash saw, and undershot ( or flutter ) water wheel, later, however, the Wilcox mill put in a muley saw rig, and later still, circular saws. During the years 1850 and '51, a firm styled Ritchie, Reid & Ritchie, built a steam mill at the west end of the bridge at DePere and made lumber upon a much larger scale, shipping to outside markets. Finding their supply of timber chiefly along, or not far from the banks of the East river, they continued to run until they had exhausted the supply of timber tributary to that stream, then the Ritchies moved to Ashland, Wiscon- sin, and Mr. Reid converted the sawmill into a sash, door and blind factory.
"After the timber along the stream was gone, smaller circular sawmills were built back from the stream among the timber, from five to ten miles out from the cities. These continued to make lumber, shingles and staves until the coun- try was cleared of all lumber suitable for either, which occurred about the year 1875. While the removal of all this valuable timber was going on it created great activity in business, at the same time the average profit upon the manu- factured stock was so small after all expenses were deducted, that the com- munity seemed but little better off than before. What was left of the timber was refuse and would cost to remove at least $20 per acre.
"M. E. Tremble and Chase and Dickey had mills in the town of Suamico at Flintville or near Big Suamico river, that ran after the timber was gone at DePere and the city of Green Bay, but in all sections of the country the residue was a heavy incumbrance instead of an asset, viewed from an agricultural standpoint until the iron furnaces were put in operation at DePere and Green
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Bay. These called for so much charcoal to smelt the iron ore that all the wood in the county was soon marketed at profitable prices and the county rapidly became an agricultural county and is now one of the best in the state. To give an approximate idea of the rate at which this refuse timber was removed during the furnace period, the writer as president of the National Furnace Company. during its first four years after it was started, purchased for a season's supply over thirty thousand cords of cord wood, and my purchase only represented what was consumed by the National, while the Fox river furnace and the Green Bay would each require about the same. The furnace at Green Bay and the Fox river on the west side at De Pere closed finally about the year 1876, and the National in 1893, after a run of twenty-four years. All these furnaces were built about the same time.
"Before the National closed in 1893, they brought coal by rail from Wilson and Barkville, near Escanaba. Michigan, there being scarcely enough wood left in Brown county for fire wood for the farmers.
"When the writer first came to the county we were nearing the end of the fishing and hunting era, and entering the lumbering, then followed the iron and now the agricultural era, the best for substantial growth. We suffered loss of business during the changes, yet after each change was fully established, business became better than formerly.
"In view of the fact that the soil of our county is rich and productive, we may all be thankful that we had an iron era, to subject it to the use of the man with the hoe, and for the reason that the profit upon a single good crop now amounts to more than all the profit from the forest. The fact that the southern counties were prairie and quickly brought into production may account for their greater wealth. They were making wealth while we were in the woods."
The following paper by Howard C. Gardiner, a veteran millman and lum- berman, written for the Green Bay Historical Society, gives a fine idea of conditions during the lumber era in Brown county :
"For a century and a half after the advent of the white man, the virgin forests of Wisconsin remained intact, and her rivers, with their tributary streams, flowed freely from source to mouth, unimpeded by dams and unvexed by water wheels.
"As a preliminary to what follows, it may be well to try to convey to those who in this fin de siecle age have never seen one, some idea of what a primitive sawmill was. First, however, it is necessary to show the conditions which existed in Brown county at the time when these mills were built. At that period the whole country was one vast forest, permeated by small water courses which drained the soil, and eventually found their way to the adjacent rivers. Since the timber was cut off, those creeks have to a great extent disappeared and the few that still survive are so wasted in force that they would hardly furnish sufficient water to run a dog churn. Such is the present condition of Dutch- man's. Baird's and Hell creeks, streams that years ago furnished power to turn the wheels of the mills located thereon, as will be shown in the course of this article. Since time immemorial, water has been used as a motive power on overshot, undershot and tide wheels, but the turbine wheel is comparatively a late invention. This was the description of wheel used by our pioneer lum-
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bermen, and for the enlightenment of those ignorant of the process, we will now proceed figuratively to erect an old time sawmill.
"Having chosen an eligible site, the first thing was to secure the services of a competent millwright ( many of whom were to be found among the pioneer settlers) to prepare the materials and construct the mill, which after all was no difficult job as the mechanism was exceedingly simple. As solidity was a sine qua non, the timber for the sills was hewn from selected trees, and squared 16 or 18 inches. These were placed upon a substantial structure about eight feet above the water level. All the beams were of abnormal dimensions and the building itself was a one-story affair, some 60 or 70 x 25 or 30 feet. The site was graded, the tail race was excavated, a flume beneath the mill was constructed, the water wheel was placed in position and a chute was built to convey the water thereto. By a simple device the water, when needed was shut off from the wheel and suffered to run through the flume and tail race to the stream below the mill.
"The whole capacity of the mill was represented by a single muley saw which traveled in a slide affixed to the timbers above, and was connected by a wooden pitman, six or eight feet long, attached to a crank below the mill which received its impetus from the water wheel and revolved with great veloc- ity. A jack ladder ran from the mill to the pond, up which the logs were drawn by a crude windlass. When a log was delivered beside the carriage, which ran to and fro, operated by a rack and pinion, it was rolled thereon by cant hooks and securely fastened by iron dogs. The slabs were taken from the four sides, and the cant was then manufactured into lumber, the saw running through till within three or four inches of the end, which was left intact till the cant left the carriage, when the boards were attached, and the 'stub shorts' as they were called, smoothed off with an adz. The head and tail sawyers usually consti- tuted the mill crew, and the daily cut was from 3,000 to 5,000 feet. The dam, which was erected after the mill was completed, raised the water several feet and turned it into the chute and flume beneath the mill. The pond thus created was used for the storage of logs. Such is a brief description of a typical saw- mill of the olden time."
The earliest sawmill in this district of which we have any record was, accord- ing to Grignon's published recollections, erected by Jacob Franks about the year 1809. Mr. Grignon says that Franks first built a sawmill, and then a grist mill, both of which were located on Devil river, two or three miles east of DePere, and were constructed by an American named Bradley. He says noth- ing about the "capacity" of the sawmill, which was probably a primitive struc- ture which manufactured lumber for local consumption. We learn from the same source that Pierre Grignon in 1813 built a sawmill on Reaume's creek ( now Dutchman's creek ) on the west side of Fox River about four miles above Green Bay; and that in the spring and fall when "water was plenty" it did a good business. We have the same authority for stating that in 1816, the United States government had a sawmill at "Little Kau Kau lin," which provided lum- ber for the buildings at Fort Howard.
The next sawmill of which we have any record, was built by permission of the war department on Indian land at Duck creek. This mill was erected in 1827, by John P. Arndt, who claims that it was the first sawmill in this dis-
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trict, but Grignon's statement disproves that claim. Judge Arndt, who was an enterprising man, claims that in 1834 he shipped the first cargo of lumber ever exported from Green Bay. The vessel he says, was loaded on Devil river near the mouth of Hell creek, and the cargo in question was consigned to Chicago. It would seem from above statement that there was a sawmill at or near the point of shipment, but we find no record of one. In 1846, Trowbridge, Gray & Root built a shingle mill at Duck creek, which was subsequently sold to Linus Marshall.
There were several sawmills on the Big Saumico river previous to 1852. Judge Arndt built one on the Big Suamico river, near where the North Western railroad bridge is now. Farther up stream, Richard Flint operated a sawmill in the early fifties at the point now called Flintville. This mill was afterwards owned or leased by Willard Lamb. A. E. Weed & Company had a mill located between Flint's and Arndt's in the early sixties. About that time or perhaps a few years earlier, a steam mill known as the Cooke mill was erected near the mouth of the river. This mill was subsequently owned by M. E. Tremble who operated it for some years.
At what is known as Mill Center in the town of Pittsfield, there were in 1855 and some years later, ten sawmills. It was from this group that the place derived its name. At this point the late David McCartney operated a mill ; George R. Cooke, N. C. Foster, Sylvanus Wright and O. Gray were the prin- cipal lumbermen at Mill Center.
There was much lumber manufactured in the vicinity of DePere anterior to 1850, and though the mills were generally small, their output went to make up the grand total of Brown county's contribution to the lumber trade.
There was one mill, however, of which the proprietors were exceedingly proud, which is worthy of more than a passing notice, as it was considered to be a very large establishment for those days. This mill was built in 1851 by James Ritchie, with whom his brother Robert and Andrew Reid were associated. It was a steam mill and was located on the east side of Fox river at DePere, and manufactured lumber, lath and shingles.
In 1855 Squire and Sabin erected a sawmill at the west end of the dam, which in 1860 was purchased by Ritchie, who enlarged and improved it so that its capacity was materially increased. Ritchie stated that with this mill run- ning day and night he could turn out three million feet of lumber and twenty million shingles in a season, which was equivalent to about one month's cut of an ordinary mill at the present time, running twelve hours a day.
In 1856, W. O. Kingsley built a sawmill at DePere which was subsequently operated by John S. Monroe. This was an extensive establishment for that period with a manufacturing capacity of three millions of feet per season.
As Little Suamico is near the line of division between Brown county and Oconto county, and as the lands appertaining to the lumbering establishments there were largely embraced within the limits of Brown county, it is perhaps proper to notice that point which before the advent of the railroad was trib- utary to Green Bay.
The first inill at Little Suamico was erected by Green Bay parties about 1844. A few years later they sold their interests to George Langton of the same city ; he in 1854, transferred the property to George A. Sayre and John
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D. Gardiner of Milwaukee, who built a large steam mill near the site of the original water mill, the capacity of which was insufficient to supply the demand for lumber. The new mill when completed was one of the largest in the dis- trict. In addition to the muley saw transferred from the water mill, there were two gangs a siding saw, lath mill and edging saws. The capacity of the mill when running day times was six million feet per season.
The next mill built on that river was owned by Herman Peters, and was erected about 1860, at what is now called Petersville, where Mr. Peters in connection with his son John, and his sons-in-law Winans and Olson, con- ducted a successful business in the manufacture of shingles.
A few years later Gustavus A. Groose. Sr., purchased a mill at Chambers Island which was removed and set up near the mouth of the Little Suamico river. The old gentleman was sorely afraid of that mill, and when it was run- ning he could not be persuaded to venture within a thousand feet of it. Never- theless the old boilers withstood the strain, and no accident occurred till the mill was burned twenty-five years later.
During the writer's researches in pursuit of information he was sadly handi- capped by the absence of details. The authorities which he has quoted men- tion sawmills, but the naked fact that a mill was built at such a time and at such a place is very unsatisfactory. Nothing is said about the capacity of the mills or their annual output, and every attempt to cure this discrepancy has failed. That there was a wealth of pine timber in close proximity to Green Bay and DePere is unquestionable, but the men who cut it, and hauled the logs to the mills, where they were manufactured into lumber and shingles fifty years ago, are all dead and gone, and the old residents whose memory extends back that far are not practical men. The ever revolving cycle of time has worked great changes, and a new generation has sprung up whose knowledge of past events is limited.
In our conversation with the old residents, we have elicited some facts regarding Green Bay's connection with the lumber industry, which we will proceed to record.
When the writer noted the fact of the first shipment of lumber in 1834, he also surmised that there was a "sawmill" in the immediate vicinity of where the vessel was loaded, though he was unable to find any record to substantiate his conjecture. In a recent conversation with Judge Ellis, however, he was assured that his surmise was correct. The judge said that there was a mill on Hell creek at that period, which he remembered distinctly, but though he recalled the mill, he could give no details regarding its ownership or output. He also stated that his father. A. G. Ellis, owned a sawmill from about 1837 to 1853. This mill, which was previously operated by a Mr. Sherman, was located on Baird's creek near where the Hagemeister brewery now stands. It was run by water power. The dam, which confined the pond where the logs were stored, was placed at a point where the bridge then crossed the creek.
I. G. Ingalls had a sawmill during the 'sos, which stood at the foot of Jackson street, on East river. He owned a patent for preserving shingles and sold large quantities. (). A. Tooker about the same period, operated a large mill for those days. It was located east of where Hurlbut's coal yard now is. West of Tooker, near the foot of Washington street, Weed of Oshkosh had a big mill. Howe and Robinson operated a sawmill about 1855 on the west side
BRIDGE AND DAM, DE PERE
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PAPER MILLS, DE PERE
THEMA PUBLIC LITAR
AUTOR, LENNY AND TILDER FOUNDATIONS.
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of Fox river not far from where Mason street bridge crosses. They manu- factured lumber, shingles and staves. Gow, Marsh, Wilcox and Low, all had sawmills on the dam at De Pere at an early period.
We will not attempt further specific mention of mills, for during the '50s and '6os in this vicinity their name was legion.
After the admission of the state in 1848, an enormous tide of emigration set in, and the region of Wisconsin was sought by multitudes of pilgrims from the old world, and from the eastern states. The emigrants from foreign parts were mostly Germans and Belgians, who came hither to engage in agriculture, and the sturdy strokes of the axman resounded from every quarter, letting in the sunlight upon the clearing which was destined to be his future home. The lumberman came, and during the '5os the ring of the ax was heard throughout the length and breadth of Brown county, and as the tall pines fell crashing to the earth, they were cut into logs of the proper length, and hauled away to be converted into lumber. The woods were full of sawmills, and the shingle reevers were as thick as strawberries in Bohemian forests. The immense quan- tity, the desirable quality, the eligible location of the pine timber in Brown county, and its contiguity to navigable waters had a peculiar attraction for capitalists, and the United States land office at Menasha was flooded with land warrants, which were located on the most desirable tracts. At the government price of $1.25 per acre, the cost of timber was merely nominal. An 80-acre tract which cost $too sometimes yielded as much as 4,000,000 feet, an average cost of two and one-half cents per M on the stump. The value of that stump- age at the present time would be from eight to ten dollars per M. It goes without saying that, when properly conducted, there was much money in the lumber business at that period, as the cost of material was a mere nothing, and the expense of logging, manufacturing and transportation was all that it was necessary to consider.
As all roads led to ancient Rome so all roads in Brown county led to Green Bay. In winter the highways were lined with ox teams from all quarters, as far north as Little Suamico, and as far south as Little Chute. With very few exceptions all these teams brought lumber or shingles. The Suamicos, Pitts- field, Howard, Holland, Wrightstown, Bay Settlement and all other towns in the county each contributed its quota, the aggregate of which, taken in con- nection with the product of the local mills, was simply enormous. Unfortu- nately we have no statistics showing the exports at that period, but we do know that there were at one time one hundred and fifty saw and shingle mills in Brown county tributary to Green Bay. Anton Klaus alone owned, or con- trolled, the product of twenty-one mills.
Shingle buyers thronged the street, ready to pounce on every load as it came in. Lewis and John Day, Marshall and Holmes, A. C. Robinson and others bought on commission for eastern parties, and for Milwaukee and Chicago firms. The 18-inch, made on special orders, were shipped east. The 16-inch found a market in Milwaukee and Chicago. In one year, Marshall alone dis- posed of one hundred million shingles. That was before the railroad came ; and up to the time of its completion (about 1862) all the products of the for- ests in the vicinity were shipped from Green Bay. In early times shaved shingles were considered superior to those which were sawn, and commanded
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a better price, but, with the introduction of improved shingle machines, sawed ones came to the front and eventually, to a great extent, superseded the shaved product. Up to 1857, the demand for lumber was good, and it brought fair prices, which yielded a reasonable compensation to the manufacturer. Green Bay lumber stood well in the market, and was considered to be superior in quality to that from other points. The prospect for an increased demand was auspicious, and as a result, the lumbermen were enthusiastic, and many new enterprises were inaugurated; but, as we shall soon see, their enthusiasm was crushed out, and their hopes were blasted by the reaction which took place in 1857.
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