HARDWOOD RECORD 



Builders of Lumber History. 



NUMBER LXVIII. 



Frederic W. Upham. 



(Sec Furtrail Supplement 

 The Hakdtvood Record 

 readers with this issue the portrait of Fred- 

 eric W. Upham, of Chicago, a lumberman who 

 has shouldered and carried to successful ter- 

 mination gigantic tasks in both the commer- 

 cial and political worlds. But a portion of 

 his Ufe-story can be told, for he is still a 

 young man, and one whose future will show 

 even greater and more brilliant achievements 

 if he is spared the buoyant health and mental 

 vigor which have characterized him up to the 

 present time. 



The Upham family is a distinguished one. 

 The first of the line to leave England was 

 John, who came in 1630 as a member of the 

 Hull Colony, and settled at Maiden, Mass. 

 His son Phineas was an officer during King 

 Phillip's War, and died a hero in the Great 

 Swamp fight. Jonathan Upham, of a later 

 generation, was a soldier in the Eevolutionary 

 army, and an eye-witness of the ceremonious 

 surrender of Lord CornwalUs. Calvin H., 

 father of Frederic, was born at Westminster, 

 Mass., but removed to Wisconsin and en- 

 gaged in the general merchandising business 

 before and after the Civil War, when he 

 served in the Department of the Gulf as 

 captain, with honor and distinction. His 

 brother, Major. William H. Upham, was gov- 

 ernor of Wisconsin from 1895 to 1897. Calvin 

 H. married Amanda E. Gibbs, and at Ra- 

 cine, on Jan. 29, 1861, Frederic William Up- 

 ham was born to them. 



Mr. Upham received a public school edu- 

 cation and was then sent to college at Eipon, 

 Wis., where he pursued an advanced course 

 of study. In 1880 he left and entered im- 

 mediately upon his business career, in the 

 employ of the Upham Manufacturing Com- 

 pany at Marshfield, an important lumber 

 concern of which Governor Upham was presi- 

 dent. For fourteen years the young man 

 remained with the company, acquiring grad- 

 uaDy an accurate knowledge of every phase 

 of the lumber business by filling various 

 places from inspector to general manager; 

 so that with all the commercial and other 

 enterprises which have engaged the attention 

 of Frederic W. Upham he is, first and fore- 

 most, a thorough lumberman. 



In 1893 he decided to utilize this knowl- 

 edge and experience by establishing himself 

 in business on his own account, and accord- 

 ingly removed to Chicago, where he later 

 organized the Fred W. Upham Lumber Com- 

 pany, assuming active charge of its affairs. 

 Of this corporation Oliver 0. Agler, who 

 had also been associated with the Marshfield 

 company, became secretary and treasurer; 

 in 1904 the company was reorganized into 

 the partnership of Upham & Agler, which 

 has grown to be one of the most important 

 northern and southern hardwood lumber job- 

 bing houses in the country, handling annually 

 from 50,000,000 to 75,000,000 feet. The firm 



maintains distributing yards for southern 

 woods at Cairo, 111., and Alfrey and Clarks- 

 dale, Miss., and ships its Wisconsin stock 

 direct from the mills. Owing to the many 

 outside interests of the senior partner of the 

 house, the prosperity and responsibility of 

 this large business rest mainly upon the Tery 

 capable shoulders of Mr. Agler. 



Aside from these extensive enterprises Mr. 

 Upham is identified closely with other large 

 commercial propositions. The City Fuel 

 Company of Chicago, of which he is presi- 

 dent, is capitalized at $2,750,000 and conducts 

 by far the largest retail coal business in Chi- 

 cago. He is vice president of the Peabody 

 Coal "Company and of the Chicago & Illinois 

 Midland Railway; also a director in the 

 Western Trust & Savings Bank, Calumet In- 

 surance Company and Knickerbocker Ice Com- 

 pany. 



Mr. Upham has always taken an important 

 part in municipal affairs — not for the pur- 

 pose of attracting attention to himself, but 

 with the sole object of securing for his com- 

 munity measures which will redound to its 

 careful management and improvement ; he is 

 ever for a ' ' Greater Chicago. ' ' 



Likewise in commercial affairs, he has con- 

 sidered personal aggrandizement much less 

 than the good of the industries with which 

 he is allied. In brief, he stands for better- 

 ing conditions in every line of endeavor. As 

 president of the Illinois Manufacturers' As- 

 sociation Mr. Upham recently presided at 

 the great gathering of shippers in aU lines 

 held at Chicago, and is waging bitter war 

 against the railroads' proposed advance in 

 freight rates. His work as chairman of the 

 Finance Committee of the Bureau of Chari- 

 ties, and as chairman of the Executive Com- 

 mittee of the National Business Men 's League 

 of America, is also notable. 



Frederic W. Upham is as well known in the 

 political world as in the commercial, and is 

 a recognized leader in Chicago 's municipal 

 affairs. In 1898 he was elected alderman of 

 the Twenty-first Ward, representing the busi- 

 ness men's and citizens' interests, as op- 

 posed to professional politicians, and parti- 

 cularly the granting of long franchises to 

 street railroad corporations; he resigned in 

 '99 because of his election as a member of 

 the Cook County Board of Review — an exceed- 

 ingly important office, inasmuch as it endows 

 the incumbent with power to render final 

 decision upon all questions relating to the 



of property. He has occupied 

 this position for ten years, with four more to 

 serve. 



As the Record goes to press Mr. Upham 

 may perhaps be called "the busiest man in 

 Chicago," for he is chairman of the Republi- 

 can National Convention Committee, which 

 has in charge the countless arrangements for 

 handling the great gathering now in session 

 in that city. With his characteristic public 

 spirit he was instrumental in having the con- 

 vention held at Chicago, and personally at- 

 tended to raising aU funds — nearly $100,000 

 • — to pay the expenses of the undertaiing, for 

 he believes that the benefit which the city 

 will derive from the convention will be far- 

 reaching in more than a political way, and 

 that the great crowds which attend wiU leave 

 behind them a rich reward for merchants and 

 citizens in other lines of business. 



Mr. Upham is married, and is of course 

 prominent in the social life of Chicago, be- 

 longing to clubs and societies almost too nu- 

 merous to mention, among them the Sons of 

 the American Revolution, Society of Colonial 

 Wars, Loyal Legion, Chicago Club, Union 

 League, Chicago Athletic, Chicago Yacht, 

 South Shore and Exmoor Country, Glen View 

 Golf, Merchants' Commercial, Press, Hamil- 

 ton, Lincoln, Marquette, Mannerchor, Mid- 

 Day and Forty Clubs. Although fond of the 

 automobile, Mr. Upham has not by any means 

 abandoned riding, and every fine morning 

 takes an early ' ' constitutional ' ' on horse- 

 back. 



lYederie W. Upham is a man who realizes 

 that ' ' tomorrow never comes. ' ' He believes 

 in doing things today — nor can he tolerate 

 procrastination or inactivity in those around 

 him. In every line of business or political 

 life into which he has entered he has forged 

 rapidly to the front — his lumber firm occupies 

 a place in the very front rank of houses of 

 its kind ; the coal concern of which he is pres- 

 ident is the largest retailer in Chicago; his 

 political position is one of the highest within 

 the gift of Cook county. 



Be is one of those strong individuals who 

 would never have remained an underling, no 

 matter into what niche in the world's activi- 

 ties either choice or chance had placed him. 

 He was not born to fulfill the details of a 

 humdrum existence, but to direct them. It 

 needs but a glance at his portrait or a brief 

 review of the accompanying text to recognize 

 an unusual personality — one which in obedi- 

 ence to the psychic law is as bound to assert 

 itself as is the sun to rise tomorrow in ful- 

 fillment of Nature 's plan. 



Utilization of HardWoods, 



ARTICLE VI. 



Electrical Appliances. 



The kinds of wood used in the making of devices must be encased 

 cabinets in which telephones, switchboards, 

 physicians' appliances and other electrical 

 apparatus are placed have nothing to do 

 with the workings of the electrical current. 

 But fortunately for the cabinet makers, these 



some sort of non- 

 conductor, and for most purposes wood is by 

 far the most serviceable material. One kind 

 of wood is considered as good as another for 

 electrical fixtures, but the use of wood is 

 not universal, marble and slate being em- 



