HARDWOOD RECORD 



39 



Death of Prominent Industrial Leader 



In the death nf ileorsf I'.innham. St.. father 

 of Gcorgo Burnham, Jr., of the Baldwin Loco- 

 motive Works, and long time the financial head 

 of these works, the largest industrial plant in 

 Philadelphia, and the largest locomotive build- 

 ers in the world, which occurred on Dec. 10, 

 eJids an exceptionally long and useful life. 

 He was ninety-flve years old. 



From Springfield, Mass., where he was born 

 in 1S17, he came to Philadelphia a youtb of 

 fifteen, and served as a clerk in a grocery store 

 until he met Mathias W. Baldwin, the builder 

 of "Old Ironsides," the first locomotive built 

 here, and so crude in construction as to he 

 equal to running to Germantown, about eight 

 miles from the city and back only in fair 

 weather. He was employed by llr. Baldwin 

 to keep the books, attend to the correspondence 

 and pay the mechanics. In 1835 he became 

 the right hand of Mr. Baldwin, who had steadily 

 gone on perfecting the locomotive until livo 

 locomotives, considered a wonderful achieve- 

 ment at that time, had been placed on three 

 railroads. One was put on the Germantown 

 railroad, three on the Philadelphia and Colum- 

 bia Railroad, the predecessor of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Railroad, and one on the Philadelphia 

 and Trenton Railroad. Mr. Baldwin soon be- 

 came known all over the country as a suc- 

 cessful locomotive builder. Money was not 

 plentiful as soon as it became necessary to ex- 

 tend the works, and workmen of the right kind 

 were hard to get. Mr. Burnham was expected 

 10 supply both. One day he told Mr. Baldwin 

 there was no money in the safe to pay the me- 

 chanics. "Go get It ! Go get it !"was all the 

 satisfaction he got. Well, he got it, and always 

 did get it — he was a skillful financier. Of in- 

 calculable help and relief to Mr. Baldwin in this 

 part of the business, Mr. Baldwin could devote 

 all his time to building better locomotives until 

 by 1837 he was turning out twenty a year. He 

 built the first eight-wheeled locomotive, which 

 has served as the standard type for engines in 

 America. Larger accommodations were taken 

 for conducting the business, which soon grew 

 inadequate, and to the building on Broad street 

 extensions were made until the acreage of the 

 works in Philadelphia at the present time 

 amounts to seventeen, and the new works at 

 Eddystone, near Chester, Pa., has an area of 

 eighteen acres. 



The panic of 1837 plunged the works into diffi- 

 culties, but the financial genius of Mr. Burnham 

 saved it. Mr. Baldwin died in 1866, and in 

 1873 the firm style became Burnham. Parry. 

 Williams & Co. Mr. Burnham was now more 

 than ever (if possible) the financial head, and in 

 many a crisis it was his skill in this direction 

 that carried the business safely through. He 

 was something of an inventor, too ; when he was 

 comparatively a young man he contrived a div- 

 ing machine which stood the test in the Dela- 

 ware river ; other attempts iu this direction 

 were cmiuently successful. It was the custom 

 to test the locomotives before leaving the works 

 by building a fire in their fire boxes. In the 

 case of one or two locomotives a year this 

 primitive method worked very well, but when 

 there were more and more to test, the smoke 

 from the furnaces filled the works and the smoke 

 stacks erected to carry it oCE would have to be 

 too many to be endured. "Why not pipe the 

 steam from our stationary engine?" says Mr. 

 Burnham. The suggestion was Immediately fol- 

 lowed and there was no more trouble with smoke, 

 the problem was solved and from that time the 

 Burnham method of testing locomotives was 

 adopted. 



Mr. Burnham leaves three children : George 

 Burnham, Jr., of the Baldwin Locomotive 

 Works ; William Burnham, persident of the 

 Standard Steel Company, and Miss Mary Burn- 

 ham, a member of the vice commission and a 

 well-known philanthropist. 



Eastern EetaU Suit Begun 

 Arguments in the case of the sovernment 

 against the Eastern States Retail Lumber Deal- 

 ers' Association began December 17 in the United 

 States court in the federal building. Assistant 

 ■District-Attorney Clark McKerclier was heard 

 on behalf of the government, and for the de- 

 fondant associations A. B. Cruikshank of 

 Atwater & Cruikshank. This case against the 

 E'astern States Retail Lumber Dealers' Asso- 

 ciation, which includes in its membership the 

 Xew Jersey Lumbermen's Protective Associa- 

 tion, the Retail Lumber Dealers' Association of 

 Philadelphia, the New York Lumlwr Trade Asso- 

 ciation, the Lumber Dealers' Association of Con- 

 necticut, the Building Material Men's Associa- 

 tion of Westchester County (New York), the 

 Massachusetts Retail Lumber Dealers' Associa- 

 tion, the Retail Lumbermen's Association of 

 Baltimore and the Lumber Dealers' Association 

 "f the State of Rhode Island, was the first of a 

 chain of suits brought against organizations in 

 the lumber trade for alleged violation of the 

 Sherman anti-trust law. and in it the government 

 seeks to restrain the affiliated organizations from 

 circulating the so-called black list and other 

 information of interest and value to their mem- 

 bers. The petition was filed in the spring of 

 1911, since which time testimony has been taken 

 before an examiner. This suit has held the at- 

 tention of the entire lumber trade of the coun- 

 try and the decision is awaited with interest. 



Death of F. W. Gilchrist 



In the death of Frank William Gilchrist of 

 .\lpena, Mich., on the morning of Dec. 13, the 

 lumber trade lost one of its oldest and most 

 highly respected members. Mr. Gilchrist died 

 after a short illness, which he had felt only 

 since the fourth of the month. The disease was 

 <liagnosed as ureamic poisoning. 



Mr. Gilchrist had long been associated with 

 the lumber trade, and his father before him was 

 a lumberman. The deceased was born at Con- 

 cord. N. H.. Feb. 9, 1845. He came to Michigan 

 in 1830 with his father. Albert Gilchrist, who 

 had been in the lumber business iu Xew Hamp- 

 shire before that date. His father took up his 

 residence at Marine City. Mich., where he en- 

 gaged in lumber manufacturing for several 

 years. 



The recently deceased obtained his public 

 schooling at that place and upon graduation took 

 a two years' college course at Oberlin, O. It 

 was natural that in connection with his father's 

 business he would get considerable training in 

 the lumber business, and equally natural that 

 upon his breaking off from bis scholastic 

 training he should go into that line of endeavor 

 for hlm.sc)f. This he did in 1.SG7. at which 

 date he moved to Alpena. Mich., and started in 

 on his own account. One of his earliest activi- 

 ties was his interest in lake transportation of 

 lumber. His early efforts in that line broad- 

 ened out so that at his death he was widely 

 interested in lake carrying concerns. 



The sawmill at Alpena has been operating 

 continuously since its erection in 1SG7. and 

 until the latter part of the present year, at 

 which time it was shut down permanently as 

 its entire source of timber supply was ex- 

 hausted. Mr. Gilchrist's lumber and timber in- 

 terests have greatly expanded and at the time 

 of his death he was interested In concerns in a 

 dozen different sections of the country. Among 

 the.se was the Gilchrist-Fordney Lumber Com- 

 pany. Laurel, Miss. ; the Rust-Owen Lumber 

 Company, Drummond, Wis., and the Three States 

 Lumber Company of Memphis, Tenn. 



Mr. Gilchrist married Miss Mary Rust in 1868. 

 iJiss Rust was a daughter of A. Rust, who was 

 one of the pioneers in "the lumber business in 

 the Saginaw valley. The deceased leaves, be- 

 sides his widow, three sons and a daughter. 

 They are Frank R., William A., Ralph P. and 

 Miss Grace Gilchrist. William A. is now man- 

 aging the Tliree States Lumber Company. 



The funeral and interment took place at De- 

 troit on Dec. 16. 



Mr. Gilchrist's passing away means a sincere 

 bereavement to a great many men actively con- 

 nected with the lumber business. His friends 

 among the old line of lumbermen were many. 

 He was a man to inspire lasting friendships 

 and deep respect among those who were not 

 favored with an intimate acquaintance. He was 

 a man w-ho did much for the iiublic interest and 

 took an active part in many things working 

 toward the betterment of his state and city. 



Meeting St. Louis Lumbermen's Exchange 



The Lumbermen's Exchange of St. Louis held 

 its annual meeting and dinner at the Missouri 

 Athletic Club, Tuesday evening, Dec. 17. 



Sc'veral changes in the constitution were 

 made, among them being one increasing thi' (iues 

 of the exchange on a sliding scriic. wnicli will 

 place it ou a better tlnancial footing and will 

 make it self-supporting, indepeiulent of inspec- 

 tion fees. During the past year, owing Vo va- 

 rious changes, the inspection fees fell off greatly, 

 necessitating a special assessment on the mem- 

 bers in order to pay operating expenses. 



President Thos. E. Powe gave his annual ad- 

 dress in which he reviewed the year's progress 

 of the exchange. He told of the work being 

 done toward strengthening the inspection certifi- 

 cates by appointing a committee on re-inspection, 

 composed of three representative members. The 

 by-lffws were chabged to cover this move and it 

 has proven an excellent one. In order to induce 

 new meml)er,ship to the exchange, an additional 

 fee of ten cents a thousand to non-members was 

 added to inspection charges. 



The floods and difficulty in getting a compe- 

 tent inspector materially reduced the amount of 

 lumber inspected during 1912. In 1911 there 

 were 7.400.000 feet inspected. President Powe 

 strongly supported the inspection bureau and 

 equally emphatically urged its continuance and 

 growth. 



The committee on public affairs appointed b.v 

 President Powe early iu the year m;uie a strong 

 effort to induce woodworking and other plants 

 to locate at St. Louis, but without much avail. 



The president furllier told of the monthly 

 noonday meetings which had been held during 

 the year, and said that they had proven an ex- 

 cellent means of getting together for mutual 

 discussion. He reported a slight increase in 

 membership during the year. 



President Powe told of the efforts of the ex- 

 change to secure a larger representation of St. 

 I.ouisans on the board of the National Hard- 

 wood Lumber Association. These efforts were 

 not successful at the last meeting. The ex- 

 change was successful in getting members on 

 important committees, however. 



In clo.sing, President Powe thanked the mem- 

 bers for their support and co-operation. 



The report of the traffic committee stated 

 that the strong efforts of the committee to 

 abolish the advanced rates from the Southwest 

 to St. Louis, which became effective Jan. 5, 

 1911, finally resulted in an adverse decision by 

 the Interstate Commerce Commission. The re- 

 port expressed the belief that the reason for this 

 failure was the problem of putting the Cotton 

 Belt route in position to liaul lumber into St. 

 Louis via East St. Louis with no less rate than 

 to East St. Louis. The report also regretted 

 that its protest against the rate advance of one 

 cent to St. Louis from southeastern points was 

 ineffective. St. Louis is not unduly affected 

 inasmuch as competitive gateways ha<l to take 

 the same advance. 



The committee was successful in having sus- 

 pended the advance from oiii' cent to three cents 

 against certain southwestern points, to St. Louis. 

 Cairo, Memphis and all junction points. This 

 rate was to have become effective Doc. 1. 1912. 

 and is suspended by the Interstate Commerce 

 Commission to April 1, 1913. 



The report outlined what has been done, and 

 what is necessary to do further in opposition 



