LUMBER MANUFACTURING FARTHER SOUTH IN MINNESOTA. That this paper may include mention of the beginnings of the lumber industry at other places in this state south of the St. Croix valley, I have obtained the following notes of sawmills in St. Paul, Hastings, Red Wing, and elsewhere southward to Winona. The Red Wing mills have depended mainly, and those farther south in a considerable degree, on the St. Croix lumbermen for their supplies of logs. In St. Paul a sawmill was built in the early 50's by John S. Prince, on the bank of the Mississippi river a short distance east of the site of the Union railway depot. After cutting about a million feet of lumber, it was sold to William G. Le Duc and was removed by him to Hastings. Other sawmills in and near St. Paul during the fifteen years following 1850 were as follows: In 1851, John R. Irvine built a sawmill on the upper levee, near the foot of Eagle street, which continued in operation until 1858, sawing about 1,000,000 feet of lumber yearly. About the year 1855, J. B. Holmes erected a small sawmill near the spot where the Union depot now stands. William L. Ames built a mill near the foot of Dayton's bluff, which commenced operations about the year 1856 and continued four years, sawing about 1,250,000 feet of lumber each year, until it was torn down in 1860. About 500 feet below the Ames mill, the Sanford mill was erected in 1856, which continued in operation three years, sawing, like the last, about 1,250,000 feet each year. In the same year, 1856, Stuart, Cobb & Company erected a mill on the upper levee, 500 or 600 yards above the Irvine mill, and nearly opposite Sherman street. This mill continued in operation four years, sawing about 2,000,000 feet per annum. It was destroyed by fire in 1860. During the year 1857, Henry P. Upham and Col. Chauncey W. Griggs operated the old Fuller sawmill, which stood near the upper levee, on the ground now occupied by the Minnesota Soap Company, sawing 1,000,000 feet of lumber. In 1858, Mr. Upham bought a small mill that had been built on the west side of the Mississippi river, just below where the Wabasha street bridge now stands; and he and Freeman James operated this mill about six years, sawing, each year, about 1,000,000 feet of lumber. At Pig's Eye, William Davis and Joe Deion operated a sawmill from 1861 to 1865. Another sawmill was built in St. Paul about the year 1870 by Louis Krieger and John M. Keller, on Phalen creek just above the St. Paul and Duluth railroad depot. It operated three years and manufactured about three million feet of lumber, using logs brought by this railroad from townships 36, 37, and 38, in range 21, which include Harris, Rush City, and Rock Creek stations. The pioneer lumberman of Hastings was William G. Le Duc, who in 1856 built a sawmill beside the Mississippi river at the west edge of the city, where now stands the great mill of Libbey & Thompson. He purchased his first mill machinery in Ohio, but it proved a failure and was replaced by the machinery from Prince's mill in St. Paul. This mill manufactured about 5,000,000 feet of lumber. In the autumn of the same year 1856 another mill was built in Hastings, by Phelps, Graham, and Knapp. It was situated on the slough at the east end of the city. After operating three years, it was sold to A. J. Short, who removed it to Point Douglas. A sawmill that was built by Bullard & Post in 1853 at Wacouta, a few miles east of Red Wing, appears to have been the first west of the Mississippi in this state, excepting the small mill that supplied lumber for the construction of Fort Snelling. The Wacouta mill operated five years, and sawed about 5,000,000 feet of lumber. The first mill at Red Wing was built in 1855 by Pettibone & Knapp. This mill, after sawing about 6,000,000 feet, was sold in 1861 to Cogel & Betcher, by whom it was rebuilt. Their product during the years 1861 to 1875 was at least 70,000,000 feet. In 1875 this property passed to the ownership of Charles Betcher, who estimates his production of lumber from that date until now to be 180,000,000 feet or more. In 1857, Grannis, Daniels & Company built another sawmill at Red Wing, which continued in operation thirty-two years, under successive owners, being finally burned. Its gross cut is estimated as at least 130,000,000 feet. A third mill, built here also in 1857, by a Boston capitalist named Drew, sawed only half a million feet, when its work ceased on account of the financial panic of that year. This mill building, removed a short distance, is now in use as the railway freight house. In 1856 and later, sawmills have been operated at Frontenac and Central Point, their product being probably about 10,000,000 feet. At Read's Landing, in the autumn of 1854, William R. Marshall, Joseph M. Marshall, and N. P. Langford, erected a mill which cut about 1,200,000 feet of lumber. Then the property was sold, in the summer of 1855, to Knapp, Tainter and Wilson, lumbermen of Menomonie, Wisconsin, who enlarged the mill and continued to operate it several years, until it was destroyed by fire. In Winona the first sawmill was one of small capacity, built by Highlands & Wyckoff in the fall of 1855. It was burned five years afterward. The next sawmill was erected in 1857 by Laird, Norton & Company, who continue still in business. Their mill was rebuilt in 1879; and it was destroyed by fire, and was rebuilt again on a very large scale, in 1885. The third mill was built in 1858 by the Youmans Brothers, and was rebuilt in 1881, being now one of the largest and best equipped sawmills in this state. With these, since 1881, this city has had the large mill of the Winona Lumber Company; and, since 1882, that of the Empire Lumber Company. The production of lumber in Winona, according to estimates supplied to me by Hon. Thomas Simpson and Mr. W. H. Laird, has been approximately as follows: During the years 1858 to 1868, inclusive, about 160,000,000 feet; in the next ten years, 325,000,000 feet; in the next decade, 1,150,000,000 feet; and in the last ten years, 1889 to 1898, inclusive, about 1,400,000,000 feet. The total for these forty-one years has been thus about 3,035,000,000 feet of sawn lumber; to which should be added a large value of laths and shingles. During the years 1858 to 1870 the logs used in sawing at Winona came largely from the St. Croix river and its tributaries. Since 1870 they have mostly come from the Chippewa river of Wisconsin. In 1871 the Beef Slough, branching from the Chippewa near its mouth and continuing beside the Mississippi almost to Winona, began to be used for running the Chippewa logs and making them into rafts, under the control of the Mississippi River Logging Company, which includes the owners of the Winona mills. But within the last five years a portion of the Winona supply of logs has been again derived from the St. Croix valley. SUMMARY AND STATISTICS. During the period of sixty years of lumbering in the St. Croix valley one hundred and thirty-three mills have been erected, for the manufacture almost exclusively of pine timber. Of this number of mills only twenty-seven are running in 1899. So few mills now are doing the work, with an increased product of millions of lumber annually, which is due to the late improvements in machinery. Mills now cutting from ten to forty-five millions per season are doing what in former years would have required the running of ten or fifteen mills, to manufacture the same amount in the same time. In the following tabulated statistics the logs noted as cut prior to the boom output in 1851 are reported beyond in the manufacturers' table, excepting 55,000,000 feet rafted to St. Louis. The earliest statistics are from persons operating, and the later from record books. I give the figures in round numbers. The table includes logs cut and floated down the St. Croix river and its tributaries. The following figures give the boom output from 1851 to 1898: Total of logs from the St. Croix and tributaries, board measure Feet. 9,895,303,207 100,000,000 55,000,000 10,050,303,207 This amount does not include the logs sawn into lumber at mills on the railroads, which are placed in the following statistics of lumber manufactured on the St. Croix and within its drainage area. |