Historic Logging and Milling Photos

[Steve_McDonald]

The boards and strips were forwarded through to an edge sorter, and assorted to some half dozen grades, going to the Soule edge stackers. The slabs are returned under the mill floor by a chain carrier and deposited on a dock some hundreds of feet out in the river. Here the slabs were shipped on scows eight miles up the river to Jacksonville where they were sold for fuel.

Soule Edge Stacker

[Steve_McDonald]

The dry kiln apparatus, through which all the lumber passes, was of the Emerson type. As the lumber, edge piled by the Soule process, left the dry kilns, the loaded dry kiln cars were transferred to the dry shed in the center of the plant. The dry sheds were capable of holding 2,000,000 feet of lumber entirely on cars. Here the lumber is resorted into about 20 grades and repiled onto cars which held about 6,000 feet each. The cars were delivered by gravity to the planing mill.
At the planing mill the stock was first double surfaced, one sixteenth inch full of the finished product desired. Standing beside was a gang edger which stripped the lumber to the desired width. The strips were passed onto a chain transfer which elevated the lumber about 6 feet above the mill level. Here each strip was graded, and as it reached a position behind the flooring and molding machine desired, it was pulled off and deposited on a series of dead rolls, in piles 3 feet wide and 5 feet in height. As the finished product left the machine it drops onto a set of transfer chains which ran the full length of the mill.

Cummer Planing Mill

[Steve_McDonald]

The various flooring and molding machines employed in the Cummer planing mill were all driven by endless belts run at a very high speed. The dressed stock, after being graded, was tied in bundles, and loaded onto lumber cars. The lumber cars would either be transhipped onto railroad cars alongside the mill or moved out to one of two warehouses located out in the St. Johns River, where it would be loaded unto vessels.
The power plant for the entire operation was concentrated at one location and fueled by the shavings from the planing mill and saw dust from the sawmill.

Slabwood Dock

[Steve_McDonald]

Returning to northern Michigan, the next series visits the M Sours logging operation.

 M Sours Logging Camp

[Steve_McDonald]

The M Sours ox team during operations in 1913 in Wexford County.

Ox team

[Steve_McDonald]

Sours ox team skidding a nice maple log near Little River in 1913.

Skidding Hardwoods

[Steve_McDonald]

Back at M Sours logging camp at Little River, Wexford County, Michigan in 1913.

The Sours logging crew

[redpowerd]

steve, thanks for all that work, mucho 8) ;)

[Ron Scott]

Steve,

Do you have any information on the location and Little River? Is there still a "Little River" in Wexford county or has it been renamed to something else?

[Steve_McDonald]

Regretably the only info I have on the Sours operation is the captions on the photos. A clue is provided by the next photo which shows the M Sours crew hauling logs on Mitchell Street in Cadillac from their logging camp at Little River, Wexford County. They are stopped in front of the old Peoples Savings Bank and appear to have come from south of Cadillac. It is unlikely they would haul more than a few miles by sled. The caption identifies the first teamster as Roy Sours, followed by Lea Flesher, Eugene Rossell, and Ben Luttrel. The date is March 1913. All Sours logging photos shown here are courtesy of the State Archives of Michigan from prints loaned by Mrs Ira McClaine thru Clyde Anderson.
Bobsleds headed to mill

[Jeff]

From the Jeffy Collection.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Steve, GREAT pics. That is the stuff we are searching for in the St.John's. 133,000 bdft/day made for stripping the forest bare. We see old Pilings sticking out of the river all the time. Never figured they would build the whole mill over the water. Thanks for posting them.

[Steve_McDonald]

Thanks. The next series of photos covers the operations of the Williams Brothers Company in 1907. George F. Williams established the company in 1883 in the town of Manton, Michigan and later took into partnership Walter S. Williams forming the firm of Williams Brothers. In 1897, when the firm had grown, they took in another brother Albert E. Williams, and a nephew William A. Hall and incorporated as the William Brothers Company. The company was primarily enaged in the manufacture of lumber and last blocks. Last blocks were later refinished by others for shoe and boot lasts.

Sleigh loads of Michigan Maple for Williams Brothers Company in Cadillac Michigan, scaling 2,529 and 2,626 feet respectively

[Steve_McDonald]

At Cadillac the company had a saw mill, a last and ten pin block factory (ten pins were later refinished for use in bowling), numerous sheds and kilns for the seasoning of their products, and an extensive lumber yard. Manton was practically a duplicate of the Cadillac plant except that it did not manufacture lumber. The interesting feature of the operation, outside the manufacture of hardwoods and hemlock lumber, is the last block and ten pin department. This was regarded to be the largest operation of its kind in the United States at the time.The plant at Manton covered five acres and had a storage capacity of 1,500,000 last blocks. The Cadillac plant covered seven acres  and could accomodate about 2,000,000 last blocks.

Sawmill of Williams Brothers Company in Cadillac Michigan

[Steve_McDonald]

The combined capacity of the two last block plants was about 15,000 per day. The plants were run at full capacity six or eight months of the year-during the fall, winter, and early spring. During the late spring and summer months they were comparatively idle, running only sufficiently to keep up steam in the dry kilns. It required a whole years time to dry the last blocks and the company kept a years stock seasoning in its sheds and kilns.

Last Block and Ten Pin Factory of Williams Brothers at Cadillac

[Steve_McDonald]

(continued from page 12)
The company in 1907 figured it had enough maple timber to run at capacity for at least ten years. The maple timber was located in Wexford and Missaukee counties. It was transported from the woods by rail and logging sleighs to the companies two plants. Williams Brothers had improved their process of last production after years of experience and experimentation.

Skidway of hardwood logs for Williams Brothers

[Steve_McDonald]

Perfect last blocks were made from select logs, cross grained and defective ones were sawn into lumber. After being turned in various shapes they are stored in air-drying sheds of special construction and afterwards placed in steam heated dry kilns, where they remain for three or four months longer. The entire seasoning process was designed to strenghten the wood and leave the blocks entirely free from checks.

Last Block and Ten Pin product of Williams Brothers

[Steve_McDonald]

In addition to the production of maple last blocks the company also produced a considerable quantity of basswood blocks. These were used as fillers in shoe samples in show windows and for the traveling cases of shoe salesmen. The basswood was of very good qaulity, being clear, light, and tough. The Williams Company also turned out large quantities of ten pins and duck and candle pin blocks for bowling alleys using the same processes.

Manton plant of the Williams Brothers Company in 1907

[Steve_McDonald]

The capacity of the Cadillac plant was from 25,000 to 30,000 feet of hardwood, or 40,000 feet of hemlock lumber a day. Lumber was carefully graded and piled in good order in the lumber yard. The home office of Williams Brothers Company in 1907 was in Manton (later moved to Cadillac). From 40 to 50 men were employed at the Manton plant and about 75 at the Cadillac plant. The several woods camps operated by the company employed at different seasons of the year from 100 to 200 men.

Train load of Maple Logs at Cadillac, Michigan on flat cars of the Ann Arbor Railroad for Williams Brothers Company

[Steve_McDonald]

Williams Brothers Company timber holdings around Boon, Michigan are shown in purple. Logging camps are shown as black dots in their approximate locations. Adjacent holdings  of Cummer and Diggins are shown in yellow, Murphy and Diggins in brown, and Peters in blue. Logs were transported to Cadillac by Williams Brothers on the Ann Arbor Railroad.

Map of Boon Township, Wexford County, Michigan

[Ron Scott]

Now within a large area of the Manistee National Forest.

[Steve_McDonald]

This next series of photos is from the Kentucky Lumber Company in 1909. The Kentucky Lumber Company was one of the biggest hardwood manufacturers at this time altough the main office was in Cincinnati. It had major operating plants at Burnside, Kentucky and Williamsburg, Kentucky. The company started operations in 1887.

Section of log boom for Burnside plant Kentucky Lumber Co.

[Steve_McDonald]

The company produced about a million board feet a month at each of its two plants. The Williamsburg plant was at the junction of the Cumberland River and the main line of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad between Cincinnati and Knoxville. The plant consisted of a single band sawmill with a completely equipped planing mill. It drew its supply of logs from the upper Cumberland River.


Williamsburg plant, Kentucky Lumber Company

[Steve_McDonald]

The Burnside plant consisted of a band and band resaw sawmill and a planing mill. It was located at the junction of the main stem and the Big South Fork of the Cumberland River, where the Cincinnati Southern Railroad crosses the Cumberland. The supply of logs for this plant was secured from both branches of the river.


Burnside plant, Kentucky Lumber Company

[Steve_McDonald]

The plants for many years had been sawing the magnificent poplar that the region was famous for, as well as large quantities of oak, chestnut, ash, and hemlock. The lumber was distributed throughout central Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania.


Alley in Williamsburg Yard, Kentucky Lumber Company